Take the leap

posted by Melissa Baumgart

When I read Amy's last post, I was immediately struck by her words, "I like thinking that the body (like ones vocabulary) can be altered and improved no matter what age you are. There's always a starting place."

It brought me back to a Bikram Choudhury quote that I have shared before, I really love it and find it inspirational.

"You're never too old, never too bad, never too late and never too sick to start from the scratch once again."  

The view from the top of my impossible hike.

Which leads me to another Bikram quote, one that I live up to every once in a while,

"If you can, you must."  

It's just that with my self-critical nature, that particular quote can get me into some mental trouble.

I decided to search for more inspiration to share, hoping that one of them would resonate with you.  They encompass thoughts on taking risks, taking that first step toward something you might think impossible, and on having the courage to keep going when all you want to do is quit.

Here you go...

 “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” -George Elliot

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” -Lao Tzu

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
"  -Mark Twain

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” -C. S. Lewis


“You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go.” - T.S. Eliot


"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage." -Anais Nin

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
" - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Well done is better than well said." 
 - Benjamin Franklin

"It's always too early to quit." - Norman Vincent Peale

And in honor of our next class, the flying trapeze...
"Leap, and the net will appear."  - John Burroughs 


I plan on picking one at random and bringing it into my yoga practice today, and see what happens.
Let me know if you choose one for your own inspiration today.
-Melissa

"They call it poker, because the word f*#k was taken"

"Nice to beat you, er, I mean meet you."  Says Carol to Karyn.

posted by Melissa
I didn't win again last night.  Let's just get that out there in the open at the beginning.  Our neighbor, Carol, was the big winner.  Here she is grabbing all her money.  My money.  I really, really wanted to win.

It is interesting to notice the thoughts as I play along throughout the night.  When I start the evening, I am very hopeful, the faith that I will be a winner swells in my chest.  And then the first hand, I lose.  Second hand, I lose again.  "Hahahaha.  Isn't this fun?"  I say out loud.
While inside, I am deflating.

Then after a few more losing hands, I start to give up.  But wait, it's a good thing.  I am neither high, nor low, but now able to just have a good time.  Perhaps I can practice some of what I learned throughout yoga, and meditation month, and breathe in and out right from the beginning of the game and remain unattached to some outcome. (*winning*)  Just be in each hand.

"Let the chips fall where they may." This phrase comes to mind when I contemplate the above situation.  A mantra to not be so attached, so high on the outcome of winning.

It is a cliche in our vernacular,  and I always assumed it originated from the game of poker.  I decided to look it up online and it appears that it actually came from wood carvers.  Letting the wood chips fall "where they may" as they carved and chopped wood, hewing is a word they used for the art of turning a log into a squared piece of wood for building.

So, there must be some good poker phrases that have stood the test of time.  Any ones you all can think of?  Here are some quotes about poker that I dug up.  Not that I have heard of any of them, but some are a bit funny:

• There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker. The upper class knows very little about it. Now and then you find ambassadors who have sort of a general knowledge of the game, but the ignorance of the people is fearful. Why, I have known clergymen, good men, kind-hearted, liberal, sincere and all that, who did not know the meaning of a flush. It is enough to make one ashamed of the species.  Mark Twain
• They called it Poker because the word 'F*#k!' was taken.  ~Phil Hellmuth
• I guess if there weren't luck involved, I'd win every time.   ~Phil Hellmuth
• If, after the first twenty minutes, you don't know who the sucker at the table is, it's you.  ~David Levien and Brian Koppelman, Rounders
• Poker is the game closest to the western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or of chance, where men are considered moral agents and where - at least in the short run - the important thing is not what happens but what people think happens.  ~John Luckacs
• The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent.  ~David Mamet
• Industry executives and analysts often mistakenly talk about strategy as if it were some kind of chess match.  But in chess, you have just two opponents, each with identical resources, and with luck playing a minimal role.  The real world is much more like a poker game, with multiple players trying to make the best of whatever hand fortune has dealt them.  In our industry, Bill Gates owns the table until someone proves otherwise.  ~David Moschella
• Most of the money you'll win at poker comes not from the brilliance of your own play, but from the ineptitude of your opponents.  ~Lou Krieger

So, perhaps I am inviting the wrong crowd.  Or that I don't have inept friends.  Great for friendship and life, bad for winning poker.

-melissa