Grace & Gratitude

What a week so far:

Canadian Thanksgiving on the same day as my beautiful, amazing daughter's 18th birthday. The weather is crisp, clear and fall-like, making my every-other-day runs invigorating and inspiring.

Yesterday took a beautiful drive up to Mt Hood and marvelled at being in the moment, appreciating all the views, the sounds, the smells of the season.

Today we watched the HS Air Guitar routines (VERY big at our town's school), realizing it is the last one we will watch with one of our kids. BTW, the seniors rocked.

Oh, and I am waking up at night, sweating. Yeah. Yippee.

SO my yoga teaching this week has been centered on change and accepting that change with grace and gratitude.

I have been thinking about that a lot...

My daughter the HS senior, just turned 18 is looking at colleges all over the US (just not near us). And my 21 yr old son, a senior at university, is back at home, taking a break from school trying to figure out where he stands in the world.

It's been a big birthday year for us: 50 for both my husband and me, in addition to the kids' big days... all of us embarking on new journeys and stages of our lives. Exciting and yet.... makes me want to grab a cuppa tea and plunk myself down into bed!

Learning to find the calm amidst all the "noise" around me is key to getting through the turbulent times. Listening to my breathing, allowing the beating of my heart to be my music.

Posted this today on another blog in response to "things to know about yoga":

"A little yoga can go a long way. Make time each and every day for your yoga practice... that can be as simple as breathing mindfully as you wake up, or wait in line or on the phone. As simple as sensing how you are feeling inside and out as you stand under the shower. As simple as a few yoga poses as you brush your teeth, make your coffee... wait for a bus. Life is yoga, yoga is life."

Precious Days of Sunshine and Warmth

The weather these last few days have been incredible. We are being bathed in sunshine and warmth and the whole Columbia River Gorge looks beautiful; people are smiling and getting out to play whenever they can. I was out SUPing with good friends and enjoying our inspiring environment....

My son, Matt, came out with me to take photos of me practicing yoga down by the water. Some of the results will be on this blog and later on my website. It helped me to do that "photo shoot".... ohhh, that sounds so professional! I am starting to formulate my mission statement... my yoga business plan so to speak.

I so love practicing yoga, and even more, being someone who brings yoga to people. I love seeing how students start their yoga journey, how their bodies and minds change. It is inspiring to me to watch that transformation and I want to experience that more. One on one sessions, or small groups are powerful and each and every session is different.

Stay tuned for more of a concrete plan of action! The ideas are flowing and I am excited!

A Shift in Perspective

Just home from teaching the 2nd in a pair of yoga classes for high school students.... interesting how it took me only one class to get into the rhythm of things! Quite a different atmosphere than that of your typical yoga class ;) No hush-hush here!

Teenagers are great and it is the ones that I least expected to that seemed to get the most out of practice today. If I imparted only a bit of the essence of yoga to them, I will have done my job. Seemed to me they needed a little bit of relaxation & centering (amidst the noise of the school) but also a little bit of a challenge (can you say Plank?) to keep them engaged and amused (Tree was enough to reduce us all to laughter). At least I hope some of them will want to take a class again sometime.

Hey, at least they said Namaste and Thanks....

Just DIVE in, the water's fine....

Well, I have decided I need to take a leap. As I am so fond of saying: do something everyday that scares the begeezus out of you! I have always wondered if I have it in me to keep a blog. I was never one to faithfully write in my diary... although as a teen I don't know if I would have managed to stay sane WITHout my beloved diary/poetry journal.

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Posted later in the evening....

Ironically as I was talking to friends tonight (at my husband's tri-buddies BBQ - some of whom are in the pic at the right) the conversation veered towards how we approach new things... whether we dive in or test the waters first... some of us just dive in all the time, no matter what... and some of us, like me, mostly test the waters first and if it seems nice, ease into it. But sometimes... we just dive in! So here I go....