Last night as I watched the Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse, something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently came dancing prominently to the forefront of life, as is wont to happen while you’re witness to one of Mother Nature’s wonders. The only constant is change.
Change can be hopeful. We can change ourselves for the better, adding habits that serve us into our lifestyles and shedding damaging addictions. We can act on passion, following our true calling. But change can be sad or dreadful. Losing a job you love, losing a parent, lover, child. Divorce. Folding a passion project. Moving away from familiar people and places. Getting older. Facing illness. And I’ve been resisting that change, good and bad. But why bother spending precious energy, when the outcome will be what it will be? In practice, that’s stress, and it’s the root of all evil.
Not knowing at all what it would inspire, I asked my colleague Peggy, who (in addition to working a day job) teaches at Yoga to the People, to do a yoga dance inspired by the moon. It ended up being a fantastic representation of the practice, the work of life — letting go, being light in spite of the darkness and simply allowing darkness to exist. In some photos, dark takes over, entirely eclipsing the light. In others, the light overcomes the darkness. In my favorites, particularly the last photo, the most beautiful expression of light and dark is an honest one, where both are present, both working. Sometimes they build on each other, other times one forces the other into collapse. Light and dark are indeed part of every moment, representing the choices we have every day, in everything we do.
It’s okay not to be one hundred percent light. It’s okay to let the dark in, and to express it. It’s needed. It’s authentic.
How was your Blood Moon? Please share any learnings, realizations, mantras, that brought you to a higher vibration.
Photos by Lydia Hudgens, with some editing by Lindsay Mueller. Creative Direction by Lindsay Mueller and yoga choreography by Peggy Lin.