This yoga pose is called "Chataranga dandasana" or "four limbed staff pose". It is difficult, especially for women, be cause it requires upper body strength which we, often, do not have naturally. There are two ways of dealing with this. Firstly, we ca work at it until we can hold the pose or, secondly, we can do what we can do with our bodies and claim that that is the pose.
In yoga, as in life, it is hard to find and hold a pose, that balance between work and ease, and it takes practice. I was considering this as I thought about truth and lying this morning. Whilst we like to think of ourselves as honest many of us are not, at least not all the time. The way around thinking of ourselves as a liar is that we begin to construct truth in a different way. We spin relative truth around ourselves.
Saying something does not make it true, neither does thinking a thing should be different. There are truths which we need to work for - it is not true that everyone has food - should it be? There are truths which we need to stop ignoring. This Lent we may do well to notice our microaggressions against the truth, even as we find ourselves in an uncharted landscape where truth and expediency are confused with each other.
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