Life is Beautiful

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure and honor of returning to the woman with whom I've done most of the trauma recovery work for reiki.

Going into it, it felt like I was mostly back to myself after being triggered so heavily on that family vacation, but I still hadn't been able to find safety in my body again. My shoulders are super tight, and my hips. I startle easily, and I still sometimes wake up afraid in the wee hours of the morning.

Reclaiming that safety was my main intention for the session. I felt all kinds of energy moving during the session, but especially in my right knee, where for whatever reason, I'm holding on tight to something. Time will tell. I'm feeling more patient about that unraveling with every passing day.

At the very end of the session, an image came to me that was so beautiful I started to cry: It was an image from earlier today, when I was teaching yoga to three women in the jail. The sun was shining down through the door/window in the ceiling that the nice guards are always willing to open up for us. The women had just witnessed a fellow inmate overdosing and being revived, twice, earlier that morning. Two of them had never done yoga before. But the beauty of the four of us doing five half sun salutations - it was off the charts.

Which made me think about the movie Life is Beautiful, and choose this song for today:

Smile, without a reason why
Love, as if you were a child,
Smile, no matter what they tell you
Don't listen to a word they say
Cause life is beautiful that way.

Tears, a tidal wave of tears
Light, that slowly disappears
Wait, before you close the curtain
There is still another game to play
And life is beautiful that way

Here with his eyes forevermore
I will always be as close as you
Remember from before
Now that you're out there on your own
Remember what is real and
What we dream is love alone

Keep the laughter in you eyes
Soon your long awaited prize
We'll forget about our sorrows
And think about a brighter day
Cause life is beautiful that way.

Why is it that it is when we are about to die or are incarcerated that we so deeply appreciate the little things in life? I don't know, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to visit the jail and share in the level of presence that the women bring to the experience.

It's profound:

We'll forget about our sorrows
And think about a brighter day,
Cause life is beautiful that way
There's still another game to play
And life is beautiful that way.