Today is my birthday. The passage of time is a curious thing. It feels as if I continually grow closer to new beginnings where life swims in my body with greater ease. This has less to do with the number of years as with the poetry of living moments that shape days.

Life is stirring and expanding for each of us in some way. This may occur unexpectedly as our skills emerge creatively. For example, yoga and qigong have been part of my life for 30+ years. Both practices live in my bones. I lead qigong classes that begin with yoga warm-ups. The Gentle Flow Yoga that I instruct is laced with qigong transitions. Rather than being a conscious effort to integrate two different things, a fluid moving confluence of both practices simply occurs.

From our first cry at birth our voice and expression in the world grows. It is said that in our early years, we aim to achieve. In our middle years, we gain perspective. In our later years, wisdom grows. This general trajectory speaks to our psychology.

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Something is here in nothing.

A silky darkness.

A wild emptiness.

A river of shapes and sound.

A face with its never-before, never-after turn of lips.

Just so and never again,

lighting universes and rainbows

as tongues of fire singe my heart.

Photo by Elizabeth Gadd