“An Exercise For Thinking People”

I love this phrase!
Resetting the Compass – Day 17

Earlier this year I talked about not letting others define me and how this year I was going to just look at myself and discover exactly who I am, now that I am not defined by being a teacher. I was going to stop trying on what others are doing and give myself a chance to let the real me surface. Today our yoga teacher said, “Yoga is an exercise for thinking people”, and I suddenly knew why, for the past year, I fit so well there in the yoga studio, instead of at the gym. Then she said “Just the fact that you walked through that door says you have an open mind.” Ah..ha! I am a thinking person and I am open-minded…..the trail begins to lead me to some insights about myself…..

You know how our brain collects bits and pieces of thoughts and facts, harbors them, and suddenly one day they come together to make the bigger picture? That’s kind of how my transition from teacher to writer is taking place. The other day, in one post, I described myself as a thinker, reader, writer, teacher, and student without even thinking about it. I just said it. The remnants of my working life. I still carry them. For the longest time I felt my work life and my present life were two entirely different things and after retiring, I felt I somehow had to reinvent myself. I began taking on things that other people were doing to find myself a “new identity”.

Clues to the realization that I am who I am whether I’m working or retired were being laid along my path and are just coming together now to show me I had what I was searching for all along. Another clue came before Xmas when I wrote a blog about the Chinese zodiac. My daughters commented on it. We had some laughs and funny exchanges between us over what their signs said. Then, for fun, I put necklaces with their signs on them in their Xmas stockings. I also, just for fun, bought mine, too. I never paid much attention to it until I went to clean up the after-Xmas debris and found the card that explains the personality characteristics of each sign. I remember reading mine while walking upstairs. Instead of throwing it in the trash on the way, I thought “hmmm…” and took it upstairs and kept it and did not think of it again until today.
It said:

“Rich in wisdom and charm, you are romantic and deep thinking. Your intuition guides you strongly.”

That last line comes into even more play. I’ve had a situation in my life this past year that involved ALOT of intuition. My husband can attest to this, because in order to prove to myself I wasn’t crazy at certain times, I had to discuss a lot things that I felt with him. Strange I would end up with a card describing me as such.

Three things, in the last month, came together to describe the “me” I was searching for, but who had been here all along. Amazes me how one sets out to find oneself, and doesn’t start looking right here at home.

And so, as another day goes by, “there’s no place like home” certainly points me in a new direction, and….I have written.

*Photo – a poster my daughter designed in college many years ago to advertise an art show. For some reason this piece of her work drew me to keep it. Fitting.

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