It’s no sacrifice at all
I’ve been in this swirling multitasking mini vortex for the past couple of days and I was running to go to yoga and ended up driving over to the Earhart Expressway. I was headed to my mother’s house. Good grief. I caught myself before turning on Earhart and quickly turned around to make my yoga class. When I got there we had a sub for Michele, but it’s Erin and I like him so it was all good. He talked about the high we are all coming off of here in New Orleans – the Saints going to the Superbowl, the Saints winning the Superbowl, Mardi Gras, and finally, a deep breath. He said he wanted to talk about sacrifice because a lot of people choose to give up something during Lent like drinking or chocolate or whatever your vice is.
Sacrifice it seems in India means something else, it means to hold something dear, to make it sacred, to grow more aware. So as I enter my own Jewish form of Lent here by deciding to abstain from alcohol and sweets (compounded suffering), I thought about what I am sacrificing or in Indian terms gaining and that is awareness. On Fat Tuesday with Tin in tow my indulgences were far fewer and I found myself enjoying immensely the immersion and stepping to the side of the excess as in our picnic in Jackson Square and seeing everything in all its glorious technicolor. Sometimes it is better to observe the spectacle than to be one.
So today, on this day that has tried to run faster than me, I got up and walked Loca and we hit the pause button when we saw a pelican spread its wings and fly across the lagoon in City Park with the moss draped live oaks as a backdrop. We breathed deeply the still cool air and contemplated the coming of summer and the end of cold. We noticed the dogs and their owners and the little bits of green starting to appear on the bushes.
When I walked in the door, time seemed plenty.
At my desk, the races were on, and my head was swirling between tasks, hence losing myself in thought and driving towards my mom’s place in Metairie where I longed to go again. I’m sacrificing alcohol and sweets so that I will gain awareness of what’s in my mind, in my sight, and what my body is telling me it needs.