JOURNAL: October 8, 2006

Yesterday, my first day back from the four day hike in the White Mountains, was a wonderful day of stretching. I spent some time at school in the morning working on preparations for the coming week, and while I worked I enjoyed the wonderful feeling that comes from stretching muscles. I often put my legs out in front of me and extended the muscles as much as possible, feeling both their strength and softness as I did. Occasionally I stretched my arms behind me and took pleasure in the comfortable feeling of my body relaxing and regaining its strength. I also did another kind of stretching yesterday, one that involved my mind more than my body. A good friend called to share a problem he was having, and as we talked, I felt my thoughts stretching and enlarging to take in and deal with the problem he was explaining. It was as if his difficulty was a storm and I was broadening the sky of my understanding so the storm could be what it was and blow itself out. We talked for about fifteen minutes, and I think he and I both felt the storm of his problem gradually growing smaller and starting to fade away. He called me a few hours later to say that things were better. I hung up the phone and sat down in a soft chair in my living room. The autumn sunshine outside seemed to have grown larger. I stretched out my legs and felt the muscles that had carried me up and down mountains relaxing and regaining their strength.