I try to take a walk every evening. Sometimes in the heat of summer I make it a bike ride. But for real, after a long day working in my office, to tie on my sneakers(or saddle up on the bike) and set out for a few miles really helps me to shake "off" what may have settled "on" during the day. To reconnect my inner Nature to outer Nature; a kind of synchronization that helps me reset.
One day this week, while I was walking, I was really tuned in to that outer Nature. I had my phone with me, and my eyes kept seeing little vignettes, which I felt inclined to capture with my camera. It was like I was immersed in a matrix, where everything was lined up for me to see as I walked by, and it was all packed with some invisible MEANING, like Nature saying ,"Are you HERE? Are you AWAKE?" Well I WAS awake, and I AM awake. But I haven't always been. Sometimes I've felt the need for portents or omens or a breadcrumb trail to follow. Know what I mean? You ever find yourself feeling disoriented or lost? Like there is something you are supposed to have or do or understand, but you can't get at it or make it happen? It can be a scary feeling, even terrifying, if it becomes entrenched. But that day it was more like I realized(again)that, as Mooji says, "Life takes care of life...and you ARE Life." There is no place that I am that Life is not. So even when FEELING lost or disoriented, it's not TRUE. It is just a signal that I need to WAKE UP and RE-ORIENT. Connect the Outer to my Inner and reset. One of the ways I strengthen my inner compass is through the practice of yoga. Click the link below to join me this week. xo Nicole
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Here we are, people, it's HIGH summer. It's hot and humid at the beach, where I live, but lucky me, I have escaped to the mountains of NC! The scenery is different and the humidity is LOW, and I am enjoying the change, but my mental wheels are turning, considering the nature of time.
I have been coming to the mountains of NC for some 24 years. Over the course of time, my best friend moved here to Asheville from Lancaster, PA, and two of my daughters have decided to call it home as well. So for the past 11 or so years, I have visited regularly and have had a bed or couch to lay my head, the only cost being a few hours sleep as we have chatty time into the wee hours of the morning. Time seems to have flown; my friend and I gathering a few more lines in our faces, and my beautiful daughters have become empowered and amazing young women. But even still, there has been a rhythm, and flow, something predictable and even comforting as we measure the passage of years in hours on the road from door to door, and heart filling reunion, season by season. Enter the year 2020. On this current visit, I am marking the first time I have spent the night at my bestie's house in A YEAR AND A HALF. The same floors, and fridge, and rich mountain views, but time warped and over 500 days and nights just swallowed into a vacuum, never to be recovered. It is working on me. Bending my mind a little. On the one hand, I am deeply aware of the toll that Covid(yes, I said it, the C word) has taken on our planet; lives lost, careers and businesses ended, global travel mostly halted. Sometimes bitter losses, exposed and rehashed, over and over again, in the media, and in FaceTime and Zoom conversations, like a scab we cannot seem to leave alone, to NOT talk about. The unthinkable made undeniably real, as the entire world shut down. I have no desire to relive that part of it. But then, this morning over coffee, in public, at an airy coffee shop, unmasked, my daughter and I looked into each others faces and gently reminisced about the unique opportunity we had last spring and early summer, to live together for the first time in 8 years, to stay home, cooking good food, tending a garden, walking for hours, rather than driving to get someplace as quickly as possible. We had the chance to step out of the rat race life had become, and settle into a luxuriously unhurried pace. And it was truly one of the most nourishing times either of us has ever experienced. Such a paradox, a mystery, how we can experience such extreme loss, and unparalleled gain within the same tracing of days. It's something to think about. It's what I love about this complicated life, both precious and sublime. My teaching schedule is changed up this week, due to travel. Click the link to check the times. xo Nicole What a full week I have had! It started with that overlap of Father's Day and Summer Solstice, and burgeoned into a week full of visiting family, birthday celebrations, and extra yoga under a (cloud covered) full moon. While the week has left me a little hungry for and appreciative of my day of rest, my mind is reflective, noticing that I still feel so filled up, even with all of the busy-ness of the past several days. There is an abundant quality to the summer season. After planting seeds (figuratively AND literally) in the early spring, one visit to the local farmer's market is a testament to how Nature absolutely produces! So much bounty from the earth; tomatoes, cukes, summer squashes and zuchs, mushrooms, eggs, and so much more. So, after the pause of winter, and the promise of spring, summer has produced. Life, as Nature, is a giver. And then there is the influx of tourism to our little beach town. It really feels FULL of folks, especially post-2020. After a year of a slower pace of life and staying in, we humans are ready to bust out. We are eager to travel, or really just GATHER, to look into the ACTUAL faces of our friends and family, not through the filter of the ZOOM screen or a mask. As the last traumatic year begins to fade in the rear-view, we are leaning in to Life with a renewed sense of its value, hopefully a little more grateful for all we have. SO, after a year of contraction, we are expanding again. Life, after contraction, is expansive. I am beginning to see the pattern here. As much as I am willing to let go of limited/limiting ideas about how much I can have or produce, Life is here, giving as much as I am willing to receive. As I empty myself through the offerings of my work, and the give and take of healthy relationships, I am filled again. A never-ending rhythm, a flow, a dance. Life itself is generous. I am honored to share from the heart this week. I teach yoga asana via Zoom twice. I invite you explore my website and other offerings. I would be happy to work you. xo Nicole |