24° Feels Like 70°

For the past several weeks, like many I was checking the weather every morning, noon and night.  Checking the weather to figure out: should I leave the heat on for our cat Satchi at low, medium, or high; should I wear the warm hat or the really warm hat; how many layers should I put on today. And so with that I was also monitoring the weather app on my cell phone: 24° feels like 11°. 15° feels like 5°. 8° feels like -5°.

Then one morning after having one too many cups of green tea, I thought to myself “Gosh wouldn’t it be great if for once it said 24° feels like 70°!”

Later that afternoon I spoke to a friend of mine and she asked me how I was doing. I replied an enthusiastic “I am good!!” She then said “Really???”, with a hint of optimism that perhaps XYZ had changed in my life.  I reassured her “ No! No! This is still not as it should be. That still hasn’t happened. Wish there was more of this and less of that. But……I am ok. I am good.” Almost surprised by myself I said again “Yeah I am good!”

When I got off the phone with her, on my way to the elevator in my lobby, I had a moment where it hit me “Wait - this is it – THIS IS 24° feels like 70°!”

Everything in my life is not perfect, the way I would like it to be. I don’t have everything I want. But I am good. I am ok. I am rolling with it. This is it! This is : 24° outside but it feels like 70°.

And in many ways Yoga is just this: the practices of Yoga & Meditation do not promise to fix our problems or make them go away. The practices do not promise to make everything perfect. But the practices do offer us the tools by which to roll with it. The tools by which 24° feels like 70°!