Coming out of Hibernation

You know that moment that your alarm rings, or if by chance you wake up before your alarm, your eyes open for half a second to let the light in and let you know it's no longer dark out and it's time to get up.  And you think, do I have to?
     I imagine it's a similar feeling for animals coming out of their winter hibernation.  All of a sudden the world starts to awaken: longer, warmer, brighter days; bear bones less creaky; heart and breathing rate resuming their more upbeat rhythms.  I wonder if the grizzly turns over and thinks, do I have to?
     There's that pull to wake up, get up, scratch, stretch, yawn and start again.  Perhaps that pull is more apparent in the morning or in springtime, but even in the shorter, colder days of winter, or the inky darkness of the early morning, there is often an inner something always calling us towards getting up and doing the thing we are meant to do.  Even for bears.  Even for you.
     In yoga, this pull is called dharma.  It's the pull that not only calls you to do what you do every morning or every year, but it is the pull that brought you into being, into life itself.  It's often translated as 'that which holds or gives support' but in layman's terms, it's our experience of purpose. 
     Oftentimes, we attempt to hit the snooze button or double down under the covers on our dharma preferring the comfort of sleep, habit or hibernation.  That might look like not taking that dance class for fear that you'll fall flat on your face; or not taking time for yourself and going on a much-needed vacation or retreat because you just can't afford the time or the money right now; it might look like not quitting your stable job to pursue a long-sought dream.  And when we turn off the alarm or turn over in our beds, pulling the sheets over our heads, dharma won't just let you go back to sleep, it'll keep calling you, waking you up in the middle of the night, sending all kinds of things in your way (be it the right or even the wrong people, physical or emotional aches and pains, even illness) to get you to get up, and live the life you are meant to.
     It is inevitable for us humans to stray from our dharma.  And indeed our dharma might change throughout our lives, but in those moments, where we feel lost or confused, numb or disconnected, when all we want to do is sleep the day or springtime away, what if we asked simply, what purpose seeks to be fulfilled by you?  Rather than closing the blinds on the circumstances of our lives, can we ask, what and why are these circumstances appearing and what are they seeking to move me towards?   
     What, if in the depths of our darkness we ask ourselves, How am I being pulled?  Into what light am I being called to move towards?  And then (and of course, this is the hard part), turn off the snooze, throw off the covers, and follow it.