Heaven

During the cool down period of my noon workout yesterday,  I heard, for the first time, the Brandi Carlile cover of this Bryan Adams classic. I have to warn you that the video of Brandi's version is bizarre, but that doesn't change the fact that hers is a haunting rendition of a pretty damn cool song. I wrote off Bryan Adams as a cheesy 80s dude, but this isn't the first time I've revisited his work and been pleasantly surprised. Could be the nostalgia factor, I don't know.

In any case, this song is also somewhat topical for me today. Not in the sense that I met my lifelong love early and he's still all I need:

Oh, thinkin' about all our younger years
There was only you and me
We were young and wild and free
Now nothin' can take you away from me
We've been down that road before
But that's over now
You keep me comin' back for more

Baby you're all that I want

When you're lyin' here in my arms

I'm findin' it hard to believe

We're in heaven

Nope, that's not my life. And when I allow myself to go into the space where I feel less than because that's not my life, I struggle and suffer. As he sometimes does, Eckardt Tolle has helped get me back on track as I've listened to him the past few days, reminding me that whenever you feel either less than or greater than another being, that's the ego talking. It ain't easy, in our culture, to stay out of the ego space, but it sure feels better when I can manage it.

For me, yoga helps, and last night I treated myself to the most blissful yoga space I know of in town, Lisa's class at the Perfect Knot. It is taught in a warm room, and the release that comes from intentionally letting go is heaven. When I enter that space, I'm so much more able to be one with where I am now, which is both still in the process of becoming more fully myself and in love with a beautiful man still becoming more fully himself:

And love is all that I need
And I found it there in your heart
It isn't too hard to see
We're in heaven

Which is a pretty damn great place to be (even if it isn't always comfortable), and often does feel like heaven, even if it isn't quite the fairytale romance that Bryan (and Brandi) are crooning about here:

Oh, once in your life you find someone
Who will turn your world around
Bring you up when you're feelin' down
Yeah, nothin' could change what you mean to me
Oh, there's lots that I could say
But just hold me now
'Cause our love will light the way

I'm really going to try to trust in that last line and let that be enough for today, because the empowering part of loving someone -- just like I described above with my yoga practice -- isn't the clinging part -- it's the letting go...