Tag: wellness

Yoga + Random Thoughts

Yoga saved me these last few years. Heart surgery is far memory now and yoga has helped me regain muscle and physical confidence. It started with Adriene but then, Sam, a young friend of mine opened a studio in the neighborhood and I’m hooked. Teaching is a lot more emotional these days and a good round of yoga after school helps with that energy.

Some weeks I’ve managed to make classes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Some weeks I only make a 2-3 classes but either way I’m thankful I have a place to go that feels like home. Many studios across the country focus on hot yoga or fast exercise yoga. I know I’ll offend someone with this statement but I like real yoga that means something, that goes a certain pace, that builds up and slows down into a well-intentioned savasana. I’m there to be in tune with my body, to flow for sure yet I don’t want to move at breakneck speed. There are different kinds of yoga for a wide variety of people. I just like what I like and I’m glad that many of Sam’s classes are perfect for me.

Random Thoughts:

I’m reading three great books right now and they are all about hard topics:

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller-family trauma mixed with old love but lots of trauma

The Huntress by Kate Quinn-WWII women and Nazis

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey-I’m listening to this and it’s interesting but I do not like the abusive father-son relationships.

End of the school year is coming up fast. I don’t feel ready and yet I’ve also packed my summer (possibly) too full.

Saw Japhy over Memorial Day weekend and it’s just never enough time. I’d take them all back home again for a spell. Go back in time.

The end is always the beginning

It’s the end of Kindness Month and Black History Month (check out this link for our youth poet laureate) yet those two celebrations should continue on everyday. You know what else should continue? Kids going to school everyday in a safe environment. Sometimes it is THE ONE place where children do feel safe and increasingly we keep making it scarier.  Practicing for a tornado drill is very different from actually participating in a dangerous intruder drill. It’s not remotely fun to talk about a dangerous intruders with lower elementary students (or any student).

The idea that we can’t get an assault weapon ban done in this country is really, truly beyond crazy to me. It is a mental health issue as well; I do understand that yet the two go together. Ban assault weapons (not hunting rifles or hand guns, mind you) and make mental health care part of routine wellness care. Both of these items would show that we care for our citizens. We don’t want people to be target practice; we want people to feel well in their heads and hearts.

I’m unbelievably proud of the Stoneman Douglas students who’ve rallied, resisted, and shared their thoughts. I’m happy that Stoneman Douglas students were also able to head back to class today so as to get back to the routine of going to school. This personal account made me cry.  It’s disgusting that they will forever have the memory of friends dying near them and the sound of rapid gun fire in their hallways. According to the NYT after Sandy Hook, 400 people have been shot in more than 200 school shootings. That’s a terrible statistics for America, for our young people, teachers, administration and parents. People should be even more fired up than they are. I do appreciate Dick’s Sporting Goods stepping up and making a change; it could be more but it’s a start.

And don’t even get me started on the ludicrous idea of giving teachers guns. I’m working with students all day long. They are in and out of the library, my office, the back work room and in this safe and loving environment there is NO room for a weapon to be sitting ready for the next shooter to come strolling in to our space. I think the same for every classroom and office in our building and in every building across the country. Ain’t no place for weapons. Now those that represent us; find another way to make schools safe again.  We should be focusing on kindness and learning, thinking, and creating.

Peaceful Reading…