STABILITY, YOGA AND PLANE RIDES

At 5:30 in the morning, I normally walk the short distance to our shop to exercise. However, this particular day was dark and rainy, so doing yoga beside the bay window in my bedroom seemed like a great choice.

In yoga routines the warrior pose—legs in a lunge position, arms up—is not particularly difficult. However, on this particular morning I kept falling over! The first few falls just felt silly. Then little nagging thoughts surfaced: ear trouble; illness; oooh, maybe a brain problem.

Finally, I laughed. My focus on the wobbly reflection in the window and my evaluation of it as meaningful were not helping me get on with my day. One can’t look for stability, balance and grace in a tippy picture!

The huge evergreen outside the window—tall, straight and true—was a surer model for stability, balance and grace. This tree could be likened to Source, or ultimate Truth. Source, or Principle, can be thought of as anchor, foundation. Not “an” anchor or “a” foundation but the invariable idea of anchor and foundation that is never unstable, insecure, undependable.

Stability, balance and grace aren’t absent, something we need to find, since Source—sometimes called the God-idea—is ever present. In fact, Source constitutes the entirety of being (individual but not divided), everything that is or seems to be.

There’s no value in looking to the wobbly reflection in the window for facts about me or my security. The foundation, law, Principle that is Source, on the other hand, is always a present fact, whether I’m paying attention to it or not.

Once my focus turned to the evergreen as a reminder of my unseen Source, innate stability showed up, and I was able to go on with my yoga routine.

That experience also reminds me of a recent plane trip. My usual mode of operation on a plane involves wearing wrist-bands to prevent airsickness. I also chew gum to keep my ears clear. I have suffered at times from motion sickness and plugged ears for as long as I can remember.

This flight, however, occurred after I’d spent a week really studying Metaphysical Science. The captain had kept the seatbelt sign on because of turbulence, and at one point the plane really dipped. All the passengers gave a collective gasp, which made me laugh.

Suddenly, I realized that I wasn’t wearing those wristbands and wasn’t chewing gum. So why wasn’t I feeling ill? Instantly, I saw that Principle was the only thing going on, the stability of Source all that was present. Whether I felt sick or not had no bearing on these facts. My momentary worry passed. I felt fine, with no hint of airsickness or plugged ears. My assumption that a smooth, or rough, flight could affect my well-being had been called into question.

As Margaret Laird points out in Government Is Self-Government (p. 41), “The Right that is Principle may not conform to what you in ignorance conceive or imagine Right to be, but the fact remains that Right is the right of every wrong, Good the good of every evil, and Health the health of every sickness.”

Making no effort to change the picture by using wristbands or chewing gum, and allowing it to show up however it showed up, I found my experience was one of stability, even though the picture included turbulence. But now I was aware that a turbulent flight could not be causative, since Cause is Principle, Source.

In the conscious awareness that Principle is the anchor or foundation of all that is, no matter what the wobbly picture shows, I found I could just move on without worrying, or resorting to the aids I had long considered essential.

Just as with my bay window, I needed to quit staring at the tippy image and start paying attention to the evergreen. The stability, balance and grace of Source were present right where I was.

– Elizabeth Mock