And so the summer begins to come to a close. The change in the air is distinct. Even my body is feeling it! I'm not sure if that's a sign of aging or being more sensitive to the energy around me, maybe a bit of both! LOL! August was a great month. And even tho class sizes were smaller, I got to make a more personal connection with the students who weren't away at the cottage ;) I'm hoping I can continue to build community and connections with Rooftop Yoga, 77 Charles St (east of Church) every Friday night at 7pm and at my upcoming retreat October 1-3 at Saha Yoga. The lovely Leah Von Zuben will be joining me at this retreat providing Thai Massage sessions over the course of the weekend for a nominal fee. A weekend full of yoga, thai massage, someone else doing the cooking, surrounded by nature, enjoying general peace & quiet? What more could you ask for?
So what happened in August...it was busy! Full of photo shoots, birthdays, weddings, planning my winter retreat, my bike getting stolen, and movie night! Here's a brief synopsis....
So first, a student of mine who is quickly becoming a dear friend, Matt Winkfein, wanted me to join him for a yoga photo shoot, taking pics of us doing random asana at random sites across the city. It was hilarious! We broke into the grounds Moss Park Armoury
to take some shots w the cannons. Stopped traffic on Queen West to get some really city shots in the middle of the street. Defied gravity in Cloud Gardens Park at Bay & Adelaide. And entertained the parking lot that is Lakeshore Blvd at Bathurst. Next, in June I decided to throw caution to the wind and buy myself a shiny new bike. It was a Trek 7.3 fx, an amazing burnt orange road bike that I instantly fell in love with. I don't drive so having a good bike gives me the freedom to fly around the city without adding to the already too high levels of pollution. I rode this bike everywhere! Every morning I would smile when I would see it locked up with it's TWO kryptonite locks in the sunshine. But on the morning of Aug 27, as I left the house, I knew it was gone. Something told me before I saw the naked bike stand, that my beautiful bike had been stolen. I was devastated. Standing in the middle of the sidewalk, looking for the bike, thinking "Did I not lock it here? Did I lock it somewhere else?" Then it hitting me that the bike had indeed been stolen, and with that coming the doubt, "Did I not lock it properly? Did I not actually lock it to the stand?" It's such a horrible feeling. But a lesson to be learned. To apply my yoga practice to my day. To practice non-attachment. Not the easiest of practices...it also teaches me to keep the next shiny new bike locked indoors!
Planning for the winter retreat in Costa Rica has proven a lot more challenging than I had originally thought. I wanted to find a Yoga Retreat centre that I could take a group to escape the winter blahs before Christmas. But man! It's like I'm going in blind! The places I contacted were either beautiful but crazy expensive, or a great price but had mediocre accommodations and facilities. So I'm thinking it would be better to delay the trip until February. It gives me more time to organise it and we'll all definitely but sick of winter weather by then!
With all of this going on, I was starting to feel overwhelmed. It is so important to disconnect every once in a while. I spout about it's importance in class all the time and yet I find that I myself rarely take time for myself. August was a crazy busy month, especially on the social side of things. My birthday celebrations seemed to last about a week. It was amazing, being surrounded by family and friends. The weather was great and I got totally spoiled with gifts, the best one being my iphone 4! I love it! The next weekend was another birthday celebration for a dear friend. And the following weekend we had a friend's wedding to go to. Phew! So when I was given the choice of going horseback riding with my partner and a friend for the day, or sending the two of them off and taking the day to myself, I opted for the latter. I hopped on my bike (my Dad's old CCM is now carrying me around), and headed down to Cherry beach. I turned off my phone, put my sunscreen on, cracked the spine of a new book and let go. Sigh.....it was exactly what I needed.
Feeling recharged, I hosted the first Movie Night. It was fabulous! The weather had not been looking good for Rooftop yoga, and yet the skies cleared so we could still be outside. Then I led the troups, like the Pied Piper, down the street to my building where we ordered pizza, got to taste Lauren's home made "Yoga Balls" - chocolate and peanut butter yumminess! And settled in to watch Enlighten Up! a documentary that follows the journey of a yoga novice from New York. Unfortunately, half way thru, the dvd decided to stop playing! But thanks to Steve, we had a back up film called Ashtanga New York, a documentary about Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (Guruji) and his family visiting & teaching in New York City in September 2001. It was a wonderful night and will be repeated in October with another yoga type movie or documentary. See you all there!
My schedule this month has a few changes. I'm back at Yoga Sanctuary on Thursdays!! And I'm still at Moksha Yoga Uptpwn on Thursdays for lunch as well as Friday Sept 10 & 17.
Check out my website for details.
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