pleasure is a practice

Fiona Capdevilla of Del Traves in the cold cold Skagit river, photo by Ben Kunesh

Pleasure is a practice

We have been conditioned out of pleasure for a very long time. Pleasure is a muscle inherent within us that we can strengthen as we get comfortable with relaxing, easing, letting go. What if this was a little easier? What if there was not so much striving, pushing, struggling?

It can be rewarding to push past your boundaries of what you thought was possible for yourself. And that can be a challenge. But it doesn’t have to be HARD. You can loosen the grip of grasping and allow what lives inside of you to flow with beauty and ease.

It’s here that we access the depth and wisdom of our soul. Soul. That one who speaks truth and understands the language of trees and stars and can speak to animals and knows when change is afoot weeks before it happens. Soul, that inherent wildness that ties us to all things wild. That part of us that is nature - never separate. Never has been. Nature lives in our body. Nature is our body. Our souls live in our body. Our soul is our body. And it is not. Both are true.

Where can you allow more pleasure right now? Let go a little more? Soften just a little more?

*****

Practice the ecstatic

every day

in all moments

you can imagine

a way

to open a crack

a fissure

with a thin sharp blade

and let the light in

—Lauren Olean, Spring 2022