I’m up in New Hampshire on vacation at the lake house we share with my extended family.  Life here at “the lake” is mellower, slower and quieter than life at home.  There are no alarm clocks (at least for me -- my husband is up and out the door every morning at 5:00 to go fishing), no schedules, no phones to answer or calls to make.  The chores that do need to be done here (drying the beach towels, doing the dishes, throwing together a casual dinner) seem less onerous than they would at home; probably because the rest of life is just so relaxing.

 

This slower pace of life slows me down as well.  While at home I am an “up and at ‘em” gal, up here I am perfectly capable of out-sleeping my teenaged niece.  I can stay curled up on the sofa with my nose in a book for a shockingly long time.  I can spend whole days as quiet and still as the lake water first thing in the morning.  But as restful as it might be to spend my vacation moving from bed to sofa and back again, it’s not a great way to fully enjoy being up here.  This place offers a whole lot more than a really comfy couch, after all.  There’s the hiking, the boating, the water skiing, the time spent with family -- nieces and grandparents and siblings.  You just can’t enjoy all of that with your nose in a book.

 

When day two of our vacation dawned grey and wet, I felt perfectly OK settling into the sofa cushions with one of my recent Barnes & Noble acquisitions.  After all, the kids were spread out on the floor playing a lengthy game of “Life,” my mom and dad were puttering around, and my husband was off standing in a river somewhere.  I was content to allow myself to get caught up in the plot of my novel because I had made a decision.  I had decided to say “yes” to whatever invitations came my way.  My book would be there for “in between,” but I didn’t want to miss anything that day.

 

I’m so glad I lived that day with a “yes” on my lips.  I spent an hour chatting and laughing with my mother as I helped her rearrange the kitchen cupboards.  I took a long walk with my dad.  I had lunch with my husband.  When the kids decided to set aside the board games to take the kayaks out to the sand bar across the lake, I wound up out on the water for a boat ride.  I lost a neck-and-neck game of Parcheesi to my niece and watched a movie with the whole gang.  I even finished my book!  All in all, despite the damp, chilly weather, it was an absolutely perfect day at the lake.

 

What I was practicing that day was a little more nuanced that simply saying “yes.”   I was practicing getting out of the driver’s seat of my life.  I was practicing the art of allowing life to unfurl of its own accord.  And I found, as I so often do when I manage to get out of the way, life brought some good stuff my way.

 

Yoga has been a great way for me to play around with spending some time in life’s passenger seat, if you will.  This has been especially evident recently.  I’ve been lucky lately to be able to attend classes with a teacher who puts together series that are very different than any I’ve ever done.  They require endurance and strength that I did not know I had.  In her classes my muscles are often quivering and I find myself working hard to maintain the rhythm of my breath.  Because they are unfamiliar, I don’t always know where she’s headed or why we’re going there.  But, when I hang in until the end, I am always rewarded with an “ah-ha” when we do arrive at the ultimate posture of the sequence.  In this teacher’s classes, my work is to say “yes” to whatever comes my way.

 

Just like my damp vacation day, sometimes my “yeses” on my yoga mat are easy and enthusiastic.  It didn’t take much will power, after all to set my book down to take the kids out on the lake.  Similarly, it does not take much will power to move through a series of yoga postures when my energy is up or when the stretches come easily and naturally to me.  But sometimes my “yeses” come more grudgingly.  On more than one occasion, my new teacher has led the class through one more lunge than I thought I had in me or one more iteration of a balancing sequence than I thought possible.  When this happens, I take a deep breath, surrender to her plan and am usually glad I did.  Similarly, when given the choice between rearranging the kitchen cupboards or reading another chapter in my book, I had to take a few deep breaths before I stood up.  But I was very glad I decided to help my mom.  Though the task itself didn’t initially sound like much fun, I wound up enjoying myself.  We had fun together and came across some great family memories in the “treasures” hiding in the far reaches of those cupboards.  It was as rewarding a “yes” as any other that day.

 

I’ve never made a summer resolution before, but maybe I will this year.  Like any resolution, sometimes it will take will power and sometimes it will come naturally.  It will be infinitely easy to remember – just one word.   I think my summer resolution will be “Yes.”

 

Namaste,

Amy

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