grief and gladness, sickness and health are not separate passages. They're entwined and grow from

and through each other, planting us if we'll let them more profoundly in our bodies in all their

flaws and their grace. My wisest teacher about this, Matthew Sanford, has one of the most

vibrant, connected bodies

I have ever experienced. He's a brilliant yoga teacher, and he's been in a wheelchair for 30

years since he was paralyzed from the waist down at 14 in a car accident on a foggy Missouri

road that killed his father and sister. For 20 years, he took the advice of therapists

and physicians to create bodybuilder arms and forget his legs. Yoga helped him claim the

whole of his body and insists that he could be healed even if his legs couldn't be cured. He's become an

innovator of adaptive yoga for people with disabilities,

veterans, young women with anorexia. He says that he's never known someone to become more at

home in his or her own body in all its flaws and its grace without becoming more compassionate

towards all of life.

This is becoming wise, an inquiry into the mystery and art of living.

I'm Krista Tippett.

Thank you. Inquiry into the mystery and art of living. I'm Krista Tippett. There's a reason why when my son, he's sick, is crying, he needs a hug.

It's not just that he needs my love.

He needs boundary around his experience.

He needs to know that the pain is contained and can be housed and won't be limiting his whole being that he can, he gets a hug and he drops into his body.

And when it comes to healing, when it comes to a whole bunch and it comes to aging, we admire that 80-year-old guy that runs a marathon.

You know, we want to see that proof that mind can overcome matter because the body's

going to be what ends up shutting down.

...