Like probably most Americans and others around the world, I am watching news of Haiti, viewing images of the destruction, filling up with joyful emotion when I read of the miracle of someone buried in the rubble for days and rescued. The horror of finding yourself wedged between two walls in the dark, unsure of whether you will ever see light again, breath and move freely again, see loved ones again, experience life in all its wonder again is a fate I do not wish to imagine and I am. Enough that I am moved to prayer for those who have endured this and may still be enduring this.

I experience overwhelming panic when I find myself physically stuck, as in when my fingers swell and I am unable to easily pull my rings off, or when my children or grandchildren playfully pin me down or in a corner. A fear rises up so great that I have the sense that I need to use my force to get out of that situation. How would it be to not have the option of being able to remove yourself from that physical stuck place? I am most grateful I do not have that experience. And I am feeling the metaphor for those places in my world where I have (and I’ll use no punishing judgmental adjective to pin on myself for being so, though I’m inclined to) called God unfair for keeping me in a situation such as loneliness or fear or whatever kind of emotion I am not happy to be experiencing. I have learned to breathe through it and find the peace in those uncomfortable places, relaxing into them, finding the blessings that go along with them. Practicing yoga has taught me that. I have learned to let go of the resistance and breathe into the stuck places. In doing so I have found freedom, a spiritual freedom that translates into physical and emotional freedom.

Where are you feeling stuck? May I suggest allowing yourself to really feel it and breathe into it, and then let go bit by bit, fingernail by fingernail, relaxing just a little more with each breath. Appreciating the sense that all is truly well because you are aware and experiencing life.