Affirmation for a New Year

Having been nearly two years since I purposefully exercised, I went to a sunrise yoga class. Pre-sunrise, actually, so that my sacrifice is clear. Twenty-five degrees and dark, and I willfully got up out of bed and dragged my creaking 40-yet-feels-like-90 year old body to a yoga studio.

And like the sun rising over the horizon, I eased right back in. Years of practice and teacher training came back seamlessly. It wasn't easy, for sure. But I did it.

And the one thought that kept coming to me as I moved from one pose into another was: Always have faith in your body.

I felt like one of my laboring moms, realizing the strength and depth of resource that we all have within ourselves to give birth -- to a child, or to our new and improved selves.

Happy New Year, to all my friends and family, to my Facebook and blog readers, and most of all to the women and couples and children who have allowed me to participate in the birth of their families. May I never lose sight of the privilege I've been given.