Just images... and a few thoughts

I have written posts in my head so many times the past few weeks.  But then I am moving through the day, the beautiful summer day with my tribe... and it seems like the movement is what is important to all of us right now.  So I must just go with that, no?

We are all growing and changing so much right now.  My two year old little Mango will be three at the beginning of next month.  And she already seems to be three (maybe 7?) in deeds right now.  There is so much to share with her brothers, her father, and I.  It seems as if she has always been with us... but she is only two!

I have been noticing the space that we each hold in our tribe, our place, our role.  Sister, Brother, Mother, Father, Daughter, Son, Wife, Husband, Partner, Clown, Audience, Rock, Mess, Talker, Listener, Planner, Leader, Follower.  Noticing that sometimes these spaces need to be adjusted and swapped, allowed to be more fluid as they fit us or discarded if they no longer work.

It is a space for movement that allows each of us to feel most comfortable in our skins and in our family.  When I was younger I never understood the danger of rigidity, inflexibility, and how it can lead to injury so easily. Like trying to stretch in to a forward bend in Yoga-- and it just isn't going to happen by force. Rigidness seemed like a valid notion, a decent framework to hang a life on.  There are definites there, boundaries.  But rigidity gets so stale and dated, even before you know it, and can become unuseful.  Then what are you left with? Something that isn't working and isn't able to change.

With movement, we adjust to things in life that might surprise us, enchant us, or derail us. Flexibility insures that we stay intact as individuals and as a whole no matter what life throws our way.  Maybe we don't touch our toes the first Yoga class, but with movement by the third class we can grasp that big toe and it feels SO good.  Isn't that what family is?  An entity to itself, a whole that needs care and space to change as seasons march ever forward, kids grow, jobs shift, and directions adjust.

This summer has been about taking that breath, sometimes it is more of a controlled shudder (but breath is the goal.) I am breathing, looking at my tribe, being with them, moving through this time, and being patient about what I am going to grow in to, and what we are going to grow in to, together.

JMB