Wide Open Spaces

This weekend, we had a brush with some nasty weather.  A storm system created a rash of tornadoes in Alabama and the Carolinas – not  anywhere as devastating as last year’s around the University of Alabama, but still pretty bad.  The system hit us late Saturday night and the Sunday morning rides were all postponed or cancelled.  I took a recovery week and rode 25 miles at 3pm instead of 70 at 7am.  The wind was awful  - 15 to 25 miles per hour – but we made it happen.

I was talking with some friends from colder states who both reminded me that they’ve just now been able to put away some of their cold weather gear, and I realized how lucky I have it here in Florida. Maybe 2 or 3 days were really cold (30’s), but we rode in those.  Maybe a few days a month we had really bad wind, but we rode in those.  It never gets icy, or so cold that it’s unsafe to go out.

This lent me new perspective. 

There are many times when things happen that get me down.  It is easy to sit and wallow in self-pity and feel disgruntled, even though I've made good progress on the road back to being my old sunshiney, peppy self.  A while back,  I made a promise to bring myself back into the current moment whenever I felt this way, to try to ask myself if worrying or freaking out about something would really matter in 1, 5, or 10 years – or to remind myself to just be grateful and find something - anything at all - that was positive just by being in the current moment instead of trying to anticipate the next.  For example:instead of feeling bummed about a windy day, I try to be happy that it’s not icy, or so cold it’s unsafe to go out.

1, 5, and 10 - my reminder at my home office

Basically, I try to not be a whiny, ungrateful bitch.

I will tell you this: I am not always successful.  I still have days when I get “stuck,” I feel hopeless, I cry, I complain.   And then I find someone to slap the shit out of me help me gain perspective on things.  I got a reminder today that things in our life – “things,” like money and possessions – come and go, and they sometimes leave empty spaces.  

And I kinda let myself act like a whiny, ungrateful bitch.

After a couple key individuals provided me with my requisite bitchslap perspective check, I thought about how lucky I still am, and how I could still make things work.  I thought about how yoga is about creating space – space that you can then fill with better, more positive, more awesome things.

I've got some wide open spaces coming up.  Instead of feeling empty,  I'm going to fill them with AWESOME.

New adventures await.  I can't wait to tell you about what's going on in my iMAJination. You see what I did there?


And with that, I give you The Week in Song Lyrics.  I am not normally a country OR Dixie Chicks fan, but this one . . .  just.  FITS.

Wide Open Spaces - Dixie Chicks

She travelled this road as a child
Wide-eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes