New Angles, New Life, and Now What? A home practice in Reno, NV: July 31, 2020

Kicking back on a glorious Sierra evening with my pal Star.

I’ve been enjoying a lot of yoga from online teachers through this entire pandemic. Every day. Sometimes twice a day. Don’t get me wrong, I miss my yoga friends and community. I miss teaching. I miss a lot of things about pre-covid yoga and life. And also I’ve let go of what yoga “has to look like” and I can feel the intensity of trying to figure anything out beginning to peel away layers of things that can’t possibly exist any longer.

My life is shifting before my more open and alive eyes. Living from what feels like a new place in my being necessarily reveals a new everything. It’s similar to taking yoga from a host of new-to-me teachers and feeling the not-so-new parts of my body recruited to come online in support of a pivot in perspective. Arriving into familiar poses from fresh new angles feels like whole new poses, entirely. Warrior I and Utkatasana, for example, for years I could take ‘em or leave ‘em, but today, I find them energizing and expansive. Not that they are “easier” per se, but they are interesting and I’m meeting the challenges not from a place of UG, this pose but from a resounding AHHHHHH. The sound of relief actually floats out of my mouth, now that I free to express within the confines of my makeshift home yoga studio.

The deal is, though, technically speaking, I’ve always been free to express. I’ve just been too polite and self-conscious to let my yoga rip, so to speak, in public studios. And because the micro is also happening in the macro, I can also see I’ve been living a practice of shrinking myself in everyday life just to fit it like a good citizen.

I’m all about being a good citizen in the world, but this too now is changing as life is hitting me from different angles. Social justice, good wife-dom, and where to build community now that the avenues of moving around and travel isn’t as accessible, these things are part of everyday decisions, not just once-in-a-while niceties I tell myself are worth my attention. These things are my driving forces in daily living.

With so much changing inside, it’s no surprise our house in Reno, Nevada is in escrow. An offer rolled in the very first day on the market. It’s a beautiful place, and from the angle of a full price offer I’m enjoying it like never before, the gorgeous granite we picked out and the attention to the chiseled edges, the cool bathroom mirrors that I wanted so much but were so pricey David had to absolutely take a leap of faith on them, the sound of ten fountains strategically placed not only for visual but sonic effect. This house David and I built together was a true collaboration, most of the journey was creative and fun, but there were intense arguments, too. And just like the life we’ve built together, it’s turned out to be a wonderful place to hang out.

The universe is demanding new things out of me. So I’m doing my best to come at all this from a new angle. If you’ve followed along my blog or know me personally, you know I have house drama. But I’m not taking the bait so easily this time. I want this next move to occur from a place of being more conscious, more awake, and I pray to be placed precisely where I can be of biggest service to community.

Lord hear my prayers. World hear my heartbeat. Yoga feed my soul.

We will see what happens next.

Health, Love, and Rock N Roll