i am courage and i am strength.

this was my mantra last night during yoga as i held tree pose and stared out at my focal point...a strong, rooted, sturdy tree holding center close to the lake.

it reminded me to stand tall.

to not dismiss my wants and needs.

to honor the complexity of my being.

to remember my simplicity.

to always listen to what calls out to me.

to ignore the persuasive feeling that i must be someone other than myself.

to just be.

and live.

and grow.

after i got home from the class, i spent some time reading some of the beautiful souls that i sometimes do across the Internet.

i rested upon this quote that was shared over at boho girl's space:

"I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know - unless it be to share our laughter. We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we love and want to be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves."

~James Kavanaugh

reading this just really pierced a certain part of me that feels the need to explain myself or to pretend that the complexities and vibrations of my soul aren't what they are.

these words just held me while i rested in the truth of who i am.

i search.

i long for.

i dream of.

i ache.

i love.

all of it, my time spent in tree pose last night and my time spent meditating on these words has just brought me this really solid, peaceful calm.

a kind of calm that brings with it the acceptance to look at myself and say

"oh, how lovely".

namaste