Remember your gifts

This morning I was teaching beginning boys gymnastics. I was leading stretching and we were in a straddle, crossing one arm in front of our bodies and reaching the other overhead. I can bring my head all the way down to my leg. One of my boys said "wow! That's amazing!" We kept going, and as we moved to pike I folded myself in half and heard, "whoa, that's even more amazing!" 

I've done this, in general, between 3 and 10 times a day, almost every day, for the last 20 years. To say it no longer surprises me is to put it lightly; in fact I expect it. It has become a part of who I am; I have no idea what it would like to not be this flexible. 

But their wonder stirred something in me. 

I'm reading a yoga memoir about this guy who was in some deep stuff and then found yoga and it changed his whole perspective on life. He talks about accepting your own gifts with gratitude, no matter what they might be. The word that came up in my head was mindfulness. Can I be thankful for my first forward fold of the day in the same way I'm thankful for the last one, even if it's the hundredth time? 

Here's Les Leventhal on that -

"The experience you're having inside your  body right now - do you want that? Are you grateful for that? So you've got tight hamstrings; can you be grateful that you have hamstrings at all? Grateful you have legs? Grateful that you even have legs?...When you see people around the room taking challenging variations, can you look at that person and think, thank you? Thank you for expressing yourself. Thank you for showing me something beautiful".