Gratitude.

"If you must look back, do so Forgivingly.

If you must look forward, do so Prayerfully.
However, the wisest thing you can do is
be present in the present....Gratefully." ~Maya Angelou

Powerful words from a powerful woman and so very true. This has been a wondrous and beautiful year. A year where I have been learning to appreciate the beauty of living in the present moment. It isn't as easy as it might sound.

We are all so busy...constantly running, multi-tasking our asses off and, at least in my case, most of that is self-inflicted. I don't need to be that busy...I don't need to make so much work for myself. Recently I have taken a few steps back from things that are unhealthy uses of my time and my family's time as well. At first, I felt less-than, guilty...like I wasn't being a 'good enough' Mom, friend, etc. and then I realized....these aren't my rules I was breaking. I didn't have any rules....I was a product of my environment. The guilt has subsided and I am happy in the knowledge that slowing everything down is good for me...good for my family...just good.

Today in yoga, John said, "It is impossible to think and feel at the same time. We we are so caught up in the thoughts in our head, we are missing the miracle in every precious moment that is happening right now." I realize just how lucky I am to have found this place. I am grateful for it every day of my life. I wish I could put you all in my pocket and take you there so that you could experience the gift of 'waking up' to every beautiful moment.

I have no regrets from this past year...just beautiful memories. And I am excited for the beginning of another year but I won't lean too far into it. I am mostly just grateful beyond words for all of it...the good, the bad, the scary, the beautiful. All of it. I wouldn't change a thing.

"You opened your eyes this morning. You are alive. Once you come in to the awareness of that precious gift, the only appropriate response is gratitude."
~Chris Yax from Tuesday's class

Enjoy this NEW year. Live every moment....
~Namaste.

Shooting Star...

Last night, Corey and I went to a Christmas party at the home of some very good friends. We were standing outside around midnight looking up at the sky when a brilliant bright star went shooting across the sky. It wasn't one of those shooting stars that you aren't quite sure when it is over that it really was a shooting star at all. This was big, bright and amazing. This shooting star was very sure of itself.
When we came home (around 1am), I checked in on my Facebook page to find one of my high school friends, Deonne, writing about the shooting star that she had seen in Chattanooga just before midnight. She was talking about how bright and beautiful it was. We started chatting about it and decided that her star and mine had to be the same. We wanted it to be the same one I think. So from Virginia Beach to Chattanooga, one big sky, one beautiful shooting star. We are truly all connected.

Beautiful Little Nuggets

John Yax ended our yoga class this afternoon with this thought...

"How much of our day do we miss because our mind has shifted someplace else? Stay focused in the present and realize that there are no ordinary moments. There is magic in every moment. Every moment is a miracle."

I haven't been able to get this out of my mind. This isn't the first time I have heard this. John as well as his brother Chris have dropped that little nugget on us in past classes in some form or another. Like most big things though, it takes hearing them a few times for them to click into place for me...to really get it. Today was that day for me. It was the phrasing of it....'How much of our day do we miss'....I don't know about you but I don't want to miss anything. Life seems so big sometimes until you distill it down to individual moments? Then it is more precious...easier to absorb. We think on such a grand scale most of the time that we make it so hard for ourselves to notice the magic.

I think that is my work...to notice...to not 'lean into the next moment' (another Hot House nugget) but be acutely aware of the magic, the miracle happening in every extraordinary moment of every day.

Ahhhhhh.......