Living Life at the Edge

Whilst I was enjoying the leisure of Monday morning yoga today, Helen mentioned our edge several times. Thus, setting my mind off on one of its wanderings, as I probably never will learn to be fully present. I knew a woman at work who frequently stated that she was a donkey on the edge. We all assumed that we must support her in retreating from that place of peril, and certainly do nothing to push her over it. Living life on the edge - dicing with danger, being a micro millimetre away from disaster. Something I certainly shy away from in my sixties. After musing a while, I decided that Helen wasn't advocating this rather alarming "on the edge" existence, but something far more beneficial. From Yin, and Monday mornings, I have become used to the term "edge" as the place where you feel resistance, sometimes mild discomfort, and can tarry a while until it moves. Then you follow it to its new level. It's a place you can choose to be, not at the edge of danger, disaster or angry outburst, but at a safe and beneficial place. And you, and your body, control it. So. I was pondering the existence of other edges. Maybe in eating, stopping when you reach the edge and not consuming too little or too much. Alcohol. Reading. Watching TV. Cycling. Listening to political discussions. The list is, I think, pretty endless. Recognising the edge in all aspects of our life, that position of neither too little or too much. Is it the Goldilocks position? I suppose that those superhumans I've been watching at the Winter Olympics, and the musicians I admire so much, push their edge further and more often in pursuit of success. Me, I just want to be the best version of me that I can be without exerting too much effort. I'm content to just lean against my edges a little. I will consciously consider them in future, however, and not just in yoga.

My 2026 resolution is going well, with positive thinking and proactivity still at the forefront of my intentions. My alcohol intake varies between low and non-existent. Paul claims that I am now really boring and no fun... My enhanced diet is clearly doing me good, and swelling Aldi's profits simultaneously. Eating so much variety of fresh fruit and veg at this time of the year is not cheap. But my platelets are thriving, and I feel pretty good. Enjoying self-diagnosis, so much easier with Dr Google to provide information, I've decided that my recently much more painful hands and wrists (I have arthritis there - proper diagnosis this time...) are likely caused by all the Greek yoghurt I've been eating with my fruit. I'll give it a miss for a while and hope for improvement. It's really set back my guitar advancement, however, repositioning my edge in the wrong direction. Anyway, better news is that if I get the green light on my next 2 blood tests, and barring any of the hundreds of other factors that could prevent it, I should get my long-awaited hysterectomy on 18th. Hooray.

I've been making so much progress in yoga lately, really feeling the benefits, and now will need several months off! Ah well, unless I see you this week, and if all goes to plan, see you at the end of May.