Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Weekly Letter: Changing the View

 *Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

A change of scenery. Sometimes that’s all it takes to find the space in your mind to reset.

Last weekend, my husband and I went to Chicago for a quick trip. The goal was to walk. Some people love to hike nature, we like to trek cities. We both were feeling a bit taxed last week and without going into too much detail, we just needed to step away for a couple days. I think I’m more recharged after a 2-3 day trip out of town than a 10 day vacation. Do you feel that way?

I don’t know when our city walks became a thing, but over time and experiences, ‘walking a city’ is one of our favorite ways to experience a place. The air and scenery as we put our feet on the ground and explore have created some of our best memories.

More than once, walking a city has found us in an area that maybe we shouldn’t be in, but I assure Levi that most crime doesn’t happen between 8-10am as people walk with their coffee. Or maybe I’m telling myself that? More than once, we got so far out, an Uber had to be called. But we just get up the next day, grab our coffee and do it again. Rain, snow or shine, we just plan ourselves accordingly and go.

It costs very little, is the best way to learn a new place and will definitely give you a richer experience of wherever you are.

At the end, feeling the physical exhaustion and peace of mind as you physically cleansed yourself of your daily patterns, to reward yourself with home is incredibly nourishing. I asked Levi over the weekend, ‘which one is the real us? The walkers or the people we are at home?’

‘Both,’ he said.

Both. And for whatever reason, that was the most comforting idea.

Walk with me,

~Carmen

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Weekly Letter: The Cleansing Light of Spring

 *Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

The opening line of Alfred Domett’s poem, A Glee for Winter I think of every year around this time when Spring teases us with her arrival.

“Hence, rude Winter! Crabbed old fellow,

Never merry, never mellow!

Well-a-day! in rain and snow

What will keep one’s heart aglow?…”

The poem continues and ends with the line:

“Make sweet May of Winter weather.”

The cleansing light of Spring has been teasing us more this year than some. I avoid using language like ‘should’ when it comes to the weather since Illinois is the middle child of the states. Also, because in 2012 I had a tan by March 10th (my birthday) due to multiple days over 80 degrees. We just never really know how the day will shake out. The ebb and flow of warmth is a season within itself before the Earth completely rolls over to the sun.

We grapple with seasons in our own lives that feel like stumbling when it’s actually the forward momentum of progress. With patience you hopefully find your footing and walk easier. Much like the transition of weather our frustration at the inconsistency gets the best of us. I invite you to take a moment and consider maybe more than one place where transition is happening for you. Which are you handling well and which, maybe less so? Is there space to allow transition to be a part of the process, as to make sweet May of Winter weather?

With patience,

~Carmen