Thank you to so many of you that reached out to see how I was doing with both my sister leaving and my ankle dilemma. My ankle is so much better, and the last two days I was able to take really long walks. It was glorious and another reminder to appreciate the joy of walking, especially in nature!
Regarding my sister, she’s back home safe in Chicago and enjoying life with her three boys that are home now from college. That, coupled with a few days to settle into a new routine without her around, has given me peace. Your inquiries into my well-being made such a difference, along with our precious commodity: time. Time to adjust. Time, which helps us to adapt.
And like me, you’ve adapted too! Man, this is such a profound moment in time: challenging our beliefs, disrupting our routines, questioning what is ahead as life seems so uncertain. And yet, we’ve figured out how to use Zoom, how to teach our kids at home, and how to work from home. We’ve learned how to create a business online, make our own coffee, find decent frozen foods, and bake bread. We have even had the ingenuity to create makeshift hot yoga environments using TV screens, tight bathrooms, and even using ponchos (per our member, Sundar)! We have adapted to not driving, instead playing board games and sharing FaceTime chats with friends and family (this I personally love).
Sundar wears a poncho as he practices at home to keep the yoga hot!
Congratulations on building and revealing your resilience, your ability to adapt. It’s an initiative that comes from a trust you begin to feel – that things are okay.
We do amazing things when we shift to a healthy course of adapting. I recall when we all were taken aback about this idea of wearing a mask and the amount of resistance to it. Today, we wear them to walk, to shop, and everywhere. We adapt with enthusiasm as our friends are making masks, our kids are making masks, our aunts are knitting masks, and many clothing companies are making masks. They come in every color. I have seen Golden State Warrior masks, Forty Niner masks, unicorns masks, you name it. Something that could be such a downer has now turned into an uplifting adaptation with fun and flair!
Michele is all masked up and ready to go.
I think the universe itself is seeing it’s people that live in it, adapt. Adapt to a new set of beliefs: belief in each other; belief that good will come from this; belief that this moment is precious and that surrendering to it can show us a lot of life that we were missing. I love this piece by Terah Cox. She says:
This time in our world is a gift, because there is nothing that is not if we have eyes to see and heart to receive. It is a gift of contrasts, to be sure. For that is the nature of life itself. We ebb and we flow, and both are necessary to move us not only forward, but deeper into the consciousness and bounty of life. For we each hold within us a unique and irreplicable piece of beingness that all the rest of humanity needs in order to be whole. – Terah Cox
What a wonderful statement in this belief that today is a good day, an abundant day!
It was just Easter. Ironically, the most engaged Easter that I’ve participated in! It felt more meaningful. If you didn’t get a chance, Andrea Bocelli did an amazing concert on Easter in and in front of the Duomo in Rome, singing with his iconic opera voice. The last song, “Amazing Grace,” resonated throughout the empty streets of Rome. During this performance, they showed every major city around the world, Easter morning empty: no traffic, no people, and no life. It was emotional and unifying! How the world has adapted to this situation, this Shelter In Place together!
Lastly, there couldn’t be anything more helpful in adapting than laughter. It can take despair and turn it into acceptance. Craig Villani, Raja Yoga Academy Founder, and director at my Bikram Yoga teacher training, used to say in his classes, “crying means it’s the truth, laughter means you understand.” Laughter just cuts overwhelming situations to their rightful perspective, so you can move on. Laughter allows us to adapt, with a belief that it’s all okay in the end.
One of our BYSJ members, Sladana, sent me these hilarious jokes that poke fun of the time we are in. I hope some of them make you belly laugh like they did for me, lifting you out of anything despairing into a space of accepting, a place of adapting.
- Half of us are going to come out of this quarantine as amazing cooks. The other half will come out with a drinking problem.
- I used to spin that toilet paper like I was on Wheel of Fortune. Now I turn it like I’m cracking a safe.
- I need to practice social-distancing from the refrigerator.
Still haven’t decided where to go for Easter – The Living Room or The Bedroom. - PSA: every few days try your jeans on just to make sure they fit.
- Pajamas will have you believe all is well in the kingdom.
- Homeschooling is going well. Two students suspended for fighting and one teacher fired for drinking on the job.
- I don’t think anyone expected that when we changed the clocks we’d go from Standard Time to the Twilight Zone.
- This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was obvious she thought her cat understood her. I came into my house, told my dog – we laughed a lot.
- So, after this quarantine, will the producers of My 600 Pound Life just find me or do I find them?
- Quarantine Day 5: Went to this restaurant called THE KITCHEN. You have to gather all the ingredients and make your own meal. I have no clue how this place is still in business.
- My body has absorbed so much soap and disinfectant lately that when I pee it cleans the toilet.
- I hope the weather is good tomorrow for my trip to Puerto Backyarda. I’m getting tired of Los Livingroom.
- Classified Ad: Single man with toilet paper seeks woman with hand sanitizer for good clean fun.
- Day 6 of Homeschooling: My child just said “I hope I don’t have the same teacher next year” – I’m offended.
- Better 6 feet apart than 6 feet under and my personal two cents: I will forget how it feels to wear a scent.
(Source Unknown)
Adapt, and enjoy the shift in perspective – with love, from Michele.
Michele out in the fresh air.