Peaceful thoughts, peaceful words, peaceful heart

I was going to write about my weight loss, which is a big deal, especially since I dropped under the 190 mark (YES!) but as life would have it, another thought overshadowed the physical.


At the end of one of my yoga classes, we typically repeat the words "And may I have  peaceful thoughts, peaceful words, and a peaceful heart." For some reason this morning those words especially resonated with me and when I finished my meditation, I set that as my goal for the day.


In one of my recent yoga readings there was a passage about setting intentions and then being ready for those intentions to be challenged. Sure enough, within about 10 minutes of setting my intentions for the day, I'm challenged by text messages, phone calls, people on MY ellipitical at the gym, rain, a sick Jessica upstairs coughing her poor head off, and a ton of errands to accomplish. 


The peaceful actions and words are not that hard to pull off in the short term, but the peaceful heart? The one that no one can see but me? Ah, that can be tricky. 


Another reading from this morning talked about accomplishing the little things - and how the ego doesn't want to jump over creeks and small pebbles - nope... the ego wants to leap over mountains and raging rivers. But it's the mastering the little obstacles that prepare us for the larger ones.


So my goal for the day is a good one, especially since I'm not challenged by a huge obstacle, but little ones.  Yes, it's raining, and I need to face the traffic and lines to return a pair of shoes. Yes, I need to add soup-making to my list for my kid. Yes, I need to mail packages. But, I have a car, the ability to make soup, and friends to send those packages to. That's the good stuff. The rest is just chatter.


Thoughts to take with me today:  Let me approach each pebble with grace and a loving spirit so that when the boulders roll in, I've had some practice.