Of Changes and Yoga.

Beloved and I had another conversation last night about this new call possibility. I think he is coming more around to the idea in general - even if this particular situation doesn't work out - of moving someplace else for awhile. Which I could tell by the fact that his sentences changed from solely, "but what about this...what if we couldn't afford that..." to "if we moved..." That was a big step for him. We had had a long discussion about some of the details he had asked me to research, and then there was a long pause, and then we started cooking dinner, and right in the middle of slicing the tomatoes he said, "If we moved over there, I would have a greenhouse." (He loves gardening.)

I have never, ever heard him say the phrase, "If we moved over there." So that was huge.

Then I left him with the dishes because last night I went to my very first yoga class. A friend and I had walked past this little yoga studio just a block from my house a few months ago, but I had summarily forgotten its existence until a few weeks ago when someone else was talking about how much they enjoy yoga, and I thought, "Hey! Yoga! That studio!"

To make a long story short, I used to do Pilates before we were married, with a teacher I really liked at a gym near my house. When I moved into Beloved's house 30 miles away, that gym was no longer a reasonable option, and I never did find another Pilates class. But I missed it a lot (which is saying something because frankly, I really hate exercising).

But last night was really great, and very hard. It's about 85 degrees in there, and yoga is just as hard as it looks. Harder, actually. It's an introductory class, so there were a lot of us with puzzled looks on our faces trying to make our bodies do things they haven't done since we were in diapers.

Early on, the teacher talked about the importance of breathing well. I can't remember her words exactly, but a paraphrase would go something like this: "your body will be doing all kinds of difficult and strenuous things. You need to learn how to breathe calmly so that you can keep your focus and not be overwhelmed by the physical demands you will put on yourself. Breathing deeply will help you do this."

Now there's a good lesson for this particular week in my life. Breathe. Breathe deeply. Do not become overwhelmed by your circumstances. Breathe. Breathe again.

I am sore today in places I didn't even think had muscles of their own. But I am breathing. And will try to continue.