Bucket list

This weekend I had the opportunity to cross something off my bucket list.

I went to a 2-day yoga seminar.

Saturday and Sunday, I left the house at 7am and did not return until after dinner.

After working his usual 40 hour workweek my beloved Hubs gave up his weekend and managed both our children for 2 long days.

A huge thank you to you, beloved Hubs. And also to beloved sister-in-law who came up to help him and hang with the littles.

I don't have many pictures to show you from the seminar. There's just no way to capture what went on in that big, empty room at the YMCA - but I can tell you this, it was amazing.

Here's my nutritious lunch. 

It occurred to me this weekend that I've been doing yoga for 12 years. 

I was taking my first yoga class at UMass when I had my stroke in 2001. I was unable to complete the class, and my yogi's cut me some slack and had me write an essay. (Unlike the nazi step aerobics instructor who made me watch several hours of tai bo videos in order to obtain my credits). 

I've taken regular yoga, prenatal yoga, post-natal yoga, and itsy-bitsy yoga with the Big Boy. 

When I really started to think about it, yoga has been quietly at my side for a really long time, and I never noticed. 

Bliss. 

This weekend I was allowed to deepen my practice. 

I was given insight into the poses that I have done for years. 

I was taken back to the absolute basics of my practice and shown the incredible strength and wisdom available at the very foundation. 

For balance - we did tree. 

For inversion - we did legs up the wall. 

Nothing fancy. The "ta-da" poses we put off for another day, to focus on the building blocks of a strong practice. 

It gave me the opportunity to let go of what I thought a "good" practice looked like. I was humbled by the amount of growth and understanding available to me in my most familiar poses. 

In poses that felt familiar, felt like home, I could still find work - still find an edge.

I hadn't even noticed that I had been neglecting the basics - considering them "thoroughly understood" when in fact, I haven't even scratched the surface. 

And the people. 

Oh the people. 

To be in a room with like minded people. So incredibly different, yet in the end, so profoundly similar. It was amazing. 

Older than me, younger than me. Fitness professionals and first-timers. Newbies to yoga and yoga enthusiasts. Each of them beautiful, open and available. Kind. 

Our yogi - so powerful, funny and wise. So kind and genuine. So generous with herself. 

"Imagine what the world would be like if we all did yoga." she said. 

Imagine that. 

Now, back to the grind of diapers, and work, and dirty floors, and dirty bathrooms. But, I am changed. I will hold on to what I was given this weekend. 

A bit of peace. A yearning for more, and less - if you know what I mean. 

Oh I'm so grateful. So filled up to the brim. 

Happy Monday, friends.