Skip to main content

Gobbling Poison

Friday, February 16, 2024,

C.S. Lewis has an interesting line about the human spirit and, like a physical human body, how one's spirit will behave in certain situations.  A snippet of his famous quote is:

"...Spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison..."

It's an interesting and, somewhat, frightening thought to imagine a starved human body, being given something that they know to be bad for them but, in such a malnourished state, casting care and worry to the side and greedily shoveling handfuls of a poison down their throat if only to satiate their hunger for a period of time.

The quote, as you can read, is more directly speaking about the spiritual side of one's being and, if our spiritual side is malnourished, not tended to, and cared for, it will ravenously consume anything it can to placate itself (regardless of how poisonous and deadly the thing might be to one's spirit/self).  

I, like many of us, start my day staring into my ridiculous phone, and looking at the ridiculous things people are saying about ridiculous scenarios around the globe.....tomorrow's ridiculousness is sure to be even more delicious.  However, I do try and stop myself at a certain point simply due to the fact that, in a way, I'm"gobbling poison".....social media is actually a "poison buffet" when you think about.....any kind you want....as much as you want.....eat until you're bursting and sickened, and then keep eating.....because why stop? 

Time to begin today's practice...

Part II:

As always, I'm writing Part II post-practice, on my mat, having just come out of Savasana/Corpse pose.  Physically, today was great. Mentally today's practice was pretty good.  Spiritually, today's practice was pretty good as well.  I'm going to bring this version of my self out into the world to share and will try to resist the temptation to gobble-poison. 

Namaste


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monday, February 13 2017

Monday, February 13 2017 Groggily woke at 5:00am this morning.  I've had coffee and I'm on my mat but may not do a physical practice this morning. Monday, February 13 2017 (Part II) Did prayer/meditation on my mat and went through my standard warm-up routine.  That's all I have in me.  I'm going to move through my day slowly and with care and come home to crash in my bed. Namaste
Post a Comment
Read more

Re-Building + Persistence

Tuesday, January 23, 2018 Re-building a routine is hard. I woke at my usual 5:00AM this morning and did not want to get out of my bed. I'm on my mat as I write this, however, and will be beginning my practice shortly.  I've found that, like most habit changes, the 3rd day "hump" is usually the most difficult; get past that, and you're golden. Tuesday, January 23, 2018 (Part II) I'm writing this on my mat, having just come out of Savasana. As always when we push ourselves through something we don't want to do, it feels good when it's done and over with.  I'm feeling wonderful, connected, and ready to address the challenges the day might throw at me. Namaste
Post a Comment
Read more

Asana

Monday, March 30, 2020 After no physical practice/Asanas on Friday, and no yoga over the weekend, I notice that it's difficult to stay motivated and dedicated to my practice at times.  Additionally, I ran a solo-10K this weekend (the St. Louis GO! Marathon/Half-Marthon/10K was cancelled, like most public events), and the additional tenderness in my feet, legs, etc. definitely told me not to get on my mat. Monday blues/malaise, essentially.....a "negative mind"... When I'm on my mat, feeling like it's pointless, and that the day ahead is pointless, and that the efforts I'll expend to make things better are pointless, I can go back to the foundations of my life.  First, what do I live for?  I live for God.  That is my attempted mantra every day. It is not for me/you to understand the purpose of anything.  Pulling yourself out of an equation is very liberating in that you're no longer attached to the result. It's 5:27AM as I type this, and it...
Post a Comment
Read more