It's been a stretch since I actually devoted time to this gratitude repository. Yet three times a week when I teach yoga to my university students, during integration I ask them to either set an intention or think of something they are grateful for. So I had just a slew of random thoughts that may resonate and may make you smile...
Close your eyes here...what is your favorite smell or scent of spring? Take a moment, go there. Grass cut for the first time? Lilacs, tulips? Mine is hyacinth. It can take me at any time to a spring Saturday in our backyard oasis to me wandering and finding my bulbs up and the intoxicating breaths in of the most delightful scent of rebirth I can think of...lilacs and lillies of the valley are a close second. But the hyacinth has me by the nose.
So I offer this up and fall head first into the scent in my kitchen generously provided by the beautiful bulb in a vase the loving hubs brought home to me from the local small grocery store. I walk in the front door, I walk in the garage door and it's gentle sweetness calls to me from the kitchen to warm my soul from the drive in the northern tundra that we live in that at this time of year is easily (and has been) double digits air temp below 0. I'm intoxicated with the thought of spring...and yet...
Yeah that was for real...air temp...
So my yoga students...I am so grateful for my job teaching yoga at the university where I used to teach them management and business classes. My role is now my retirement path, my avocation if you will. And I love it immensely! From my boss who is one amazing young guy who is always kind and supports me in simply ANY way possible with his grace to his mentoring to the students of the rec center who are bright and engaging and kind and just plain amazing! And my students in yoga itself...my couple of hockey players who come to stretch and tell me they squat deeper after class, my couple of football players, one of whom is easily 6'6" and 270 lbs and asks how to modify his half pigeon (look it up if you don't know what it is...) to my regulars at 6:30AM who show up to peacefully close their eyes and glide through sequence to keep stress at bay to the 5PM regulars who sweetly call out to me their thanks and goodbyes each week. I love knowing they come to have fun and find a spot in their lives to relax and let peace come in. I treasure every one of them more than they know, especially the ones who are my fellow employees...I have a special kinship with them.
The vacation coming up...OH. MY. GAWD do I want to find the beach, sun, book, beer, ohana, mi hermanas and a freaking margarita...possibly a chile relleno at our fave spot, Casa Denis restaurant. Time...I am grateful for slowing, quieting, letting go... SOON. The warm sun on my body sinking deep inside to warm spots that just seem cold all of the time now.
Retirement... I am so grateful that the hubs is days away. He more than deserves it and I'm excited for the new path he's looking at. The rest of the year to do a few "honey-do's" and then row on the river together and work on the yard/garden he's been imagining. He's been traveling for work the whole 30 years we have been together so I'm grateful he will be safe with me after 30 years of planes and automobiles (no trains that I can think of) Cannot wait to get rowing on open water! I'm so ready!
I'm a grad student again! Age has many privileges and it turns out that in my state and the school where I taught business and now teach yoga, I can take classes FREE because I'm "of that age" and also can take them in audit status. Audit means I just go and learn; no exams, no projects or papers, no homework! I'm taking a class in Exercise Science and am grateful for the opportunity but also for the great professor I have. Dr. R is a great teacher and it is easy to be in his class because he is that guy who puts it out there in a way that is easy to understand. He's got great stories that connect it all and he is also very supportive of a retiree sitting in his class. I have shoes older than the students AND Dr. R but it's so awesome to be learning about what my new pathway involves.
I'm so grateful for the people I am working with at my last consulting client. These people work hard in production of medical parts and they work 12 hour shifts on their feet. I know I could not do it, especially at this age. But I have meetings with groups of them each week and the pride they have and the support of each other is something we should all strive for. I'm a contractor, I come in and out but the relationships are ones I have treasured. I will miss them when I am done at the end of March.
I am so grateful for the video technology that connects us these days! I know at this point in the pandemic people are ready to toss technology out the window but I have a zoom account for work purposes and I have held my lead meetings that way easily but also had many happy hours with my besties and reconnected with my gal pal in Seattle that I had not laid eyes on in 6 years! So easy, click and there we all are for a virtual happy hour!
Speaking of virtual connections, I'm grateful for having reconnected with my friend Mike, a fellow consultant in California. We've done our virtual get togethers since the beginning of the pandemic but I really enjoy hearing about his projects with his grandson, books he's reading, work and life stuff we've experienced...and always grateful for his mentoring. He has an insight of training and some of the more congruent work projects we both do and there are times I feel like a completely blank screen and he'll make a suggestion or send me some of his materials and it all clicks.
Our house has a wood-burning fireplace and some winters we use it a bit more than others. This is one of those winters. Last night we sat here as the temps went WAY south fast (it was -9 this morning when we were having coffee) and watched the flames and their mesmerizing colors dance around the logs. It was a welcome warmth that seemed to go right to the soul and relax us and put the pups to sleep as soon as it filled the room with the low light and rich embrace of the heat that it gave off. I have been known to fall asleep in front of the fire and the hubs will let it go out, close the doors over it and put a blanket gently over me and let me sleep well right there. Though last night I did make it to bed, the fire filled me up with a deep peace only it can provide.
Our fur kids, Izzy and Monse...what would we do without them? We laugh at and with them ALL. THE. TIME! Even when Izzy put her nose on the table yesterday and grabbed my knitting and took it into the living room and shredded my bamboo needles and gave a good rip to the square I was practicing on. Izzy has a bit of rebel in her and a tad of separation anxiety and we've come home to some pretty wild scenes. She can't be crated so we just count on Monse to do "therapy" and keep her calm. All is typically wonderful but some days... Gotta love them!
I am not only grateful but humbled that someone I love to pieces, a dear friend from my hometown and college, made me this beautiful sweater...knit it by hand! It fits me like it was measured inch by inch and yet the knitter was 500 miles away. I wore it to class the other day and everyone was marveling at the talent. I am in awe!
So it's the day to just think about the things that are not necessarily the monumental things (well, I think that sweater is pretty monumental...) and stop to smell, laugh, relax and think about things that we might not in the fast moving days we find ourselves consumed with. The hubs is about to retire in a few days, I will in a few weeks and then just teach yoga and personal training. I'm profoundly grateful that we are happy, healthy and able to enjoy this time in our lives and take the time to embrace things like the little hyacinth from the local grocery store.
Remember to be grateful for the little randoms that float by you...
