stretching

About a month ago I started back up with my yoga practice. Well, that all sounds so professional…my yoga practice. Really, all’s I did was start back up at the yoga class I used to attend which has gone on without me for almost two and a half years. The last time I was a diligent yoga student was before Ben’s scoliosis situation had hit the headlines of my life, it was on the way back burner lurking. Once I got busy taking him to a million Feldenkrais and osteopathy appointments every week, however, those mornings on my aqua blue yoga mat fell by the wayside. In fact, taking care of me in many ways fell by the wayside.

Over the past many months I’ve been turning my focus back onto my Self: my body, my mind, my heart, my health (sounds like the 4-H club motto). I’ve been lightening my load in so many ways. It’s been an excellent process. Changing my diet (removing wheat and most grains), taking bio-identical hormones and a panoply of supplements and vitamins to bring balance back to my very depleted systems, hiring someone to do the heavy lifting in the pastures to relieve the compression in my upper body…all of these things have contributed to my feeling better all around. This wasn’t some overnight turn around, and it’s still in process.

But, I was surprised to find that returning to yoga has probably made one of the biggest differences of all. My sister, Mara, who I should mention is in the most amazing shape and is gorgeous, kept telling me that stretching would help my aching joints. I am not a physical person generally, the opposite of her. But she was right. As soon as I started stretching on my aqua blue yoga mat I started to feel better. And now my body is asking for more every week. It’s amazing.

I will admit that I didn’t return to the yoga class because Mara told me it’d be good for me. I returned because Mark and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary this month. Late in June we’re flying down to Baja California to stay at this most lovely hotel, Rancho Pescadero, for a whole week. A WHOLE WEEK!! Besides being remote, small, beautiful, on the beach, having their own organic garden, and no kids allowed, one of their offerings is yoga classes every day, sometimes twice! When we made the reservations for our penthouse suite I hadn’t even started back up with my yoga practice, but I knew I wanted to, I knew it’d be what I needed to get to the next level in my recovery. I returned to my yoga class because I didn’t want to arrive at Rancho Pescadero and look like a dork in their yoga classes. And now I’ve had a couple months to warm up, to stretch.

At the same time that I’m preparing to head to the beach with my most amazing of all husbands on the planet to celebrate twenty incredible years of togetherness and life building, I’m also preparing to send my oldest chick across the equator on the first huge adventure of his life. Harry has been studying ballroom dancing for the past three years and this summer will take it to another level in Buenos Aires, doing a month abroad studying Spanish and tango. He’ll be living with a couple in the city, close to the language school he’ll be attending. I imagine he will return quite changed. I’ve sent him off before, to camp, to the JC, to weeklong meditation retreats. But this is different. This is a whole new world for him and it’s causing me to really expand my world, too. So far…Argentina is soooo far away. Tell me that this stretch will feel good in the end, too!

The other chicklets will be at camp (Toby) and with friends and family (Ben). It took some serious planning to make this week available for a trip away. It’s been 17 years since Mark and I had a whole week away from home together just us!

I can feel my arms stretching, I see them reaching to touch my children in their far flung locales. It feels good to stretch. I might be wanting more.