Today, but a sheer stroke of luck, I had a break in my schedule. Instead of filling it with an appointment request, I took the time to go to a yoga class led by one of my favorite yogis, a class I haven’t been able to attend in probably close to a year, due to work and life circumstances. In her classes, each month is dedicated to a certain word, with a specific focus. Today was the first class of the new month, and with it came a new word–“gratitude,” with the focus of heart-opening poses to allow gratitude to flow in, in order to be able to present the best version of ourselves outward for the rest of the world to see, bringing with us kindness and compassion.

The class itself was fabulous and precisely what my mind, body, and spirit needed, but the best part came at the end, during final resting pose in which I heard this song. As soon as the first note played, and these powerful lyrics began, the tears began to flow from my eyes.

“Ooh child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh child
Things’ll get brighter
Ooh child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh child
Things’ll get brighter
Someday, yeah
We’ll put it together and we’ll get it undone
Someday
When your head is much lighter
Someday, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Someday
When the world is much brighter
Ooh child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh child
Things’ll get brighter”

However, my tears weren’t about the notion that things are bad and will get better someday. And not that they are dark and need to get brighter. Honestly, life is pretty amazing and bright, right here and right now. Could some things be easier, someday? Sure. Will my head and the load that I bear be lighter, someday? Perhaps. But today things are also pretty incredible. My tears were tears of gratitude. And I let them flow. I did not wipe them away. Not even when class was coming to its final end and collectively we took in three breaths, just before our “Namaste.”

I took those three breaths in deeply and with great meaning. The first one was for gratitude for all of the people that have been in my past, who have led me to the place I am now, impacting me in whatever way they did to bring me to this point. They supported me, tore me down, built me up, loved me, loathed me, and everything in between to shape me into the person I am today.

I took in the second breath of gratitude for all of the people in my life today, walking this road with me, next to me, observing me, supporting me, and criticizing me, some of who get some of that past gratitude as well, and some who are only here because those of the past are now gone. They are all necessary to keep me moving forward, to remind me of my strength, to motivate me, to make me smile, to fill my heart, to teach me, to remind me what I will and will not endure, and to shape me into the person I will become next.

And my final breath was gratitude for the people of my future, for those who are part of the brighter “someday,” and those who will also be part of the dark spots of “someday.” Many will be those people of the past and today, but I suspect many of them are people I have yet to meet, who are waiting to land in my life at the exact right moment, continuing on this unknown journey of life, ready to walk with me in the rays of a beautiful sun. Someday.