A Defining Day

It feels important to capture this moment in time.

It is amazing to me how hard it is to write what I am trying to write. I want to make some bold statement like “everybody is experiencing unhappiness and the elephant in the room is that it is my fault”. But in a way that clearly denotes it is actually my fault.

I think a lot about the story about how the owner of Starbucks’ father in law came to him when he was still in startup mode and told him he had to get a job. His wife was pregnant and he had not found investors yet. His wife told him “no way – keep at it” and, thanks to her, we have venti refreshers no berries.

I think about it a lot.

David and I blended families in 2020 and the past nearly 5 years have put some major wear and tear on the house…. There is dissatisfaction with the water heater, the need to fix nearly every bathroom, trim chewed up by puppies, a gap in the counter, a need for new paint and a new door and a new backyard and everything that was so beautiful and charming about my “art house” is now just kind of dingy, not that cute and in need of repair.

When you add to that the perspective that the grass is greener on the other side of all the streets and tracks, there is this thick sentiment that feels like sadness and I feel plain guilty straight up horrible that – while the past four years have been unfolding my life’s work and my life’s purpose, it’s not quite a corporate salary and great benefits situation.

Yet.

I mean – I know what I do. I know what I do well. I see the effects of my efforts. I am amazed at how quickly everything is moving and growing and changing yet it still seems so slow. In some ways, I feel like I can’t share my vision anymore because – well, it’s simply time to work.

And, even then I took a pause because I don’t want anybody reading this feeling like bad for me or like “sounds like things aren’t going well”. Things are thriving. Budding. Exciting. I am more motivated than ever. The studio turned a year old and we have 70 members and I have a ton to do to get ready to lead my inaugural training in St. Croix (which only has 3 spots left) and I understand what I do so clearly, that now it’s simply time to keep going. It’s happening.

You keep going and then, when you’ve spend too much time in flow, you stop for a day to take care of the laundry piles and vacuum and make a homemade meal to give people a break from (pretentious) hot dogs. So, there’s that… it’s definitely the marker of a chapter I am in. It’s why I want to capture this… it feels like a grab bag, an intersection, a messy bridge.

I wanted to capture it because I am headed full blast forward. We are at the beginning of a chapter that is going to be defined by my boundless creativity, love of storytelling and conversations with friends and my full faith in the practices my life has taught me that I am going to share with you. I mean – it’s already amazing, the way the studio feels is ripe and nourishing and joyful – why wouldn’t it get more so?

This post needs to exist so I can look back on this night that I made chicken in the new cast iron with a side of thai green lentil curry while reflecting on the podcast I recorded with my coach that made us both jaw drop – like, this conversation is real and good and powerful – this recording happened after cleaning the house which I completed after drafting an email to our 500+ person audience with 70% open rates which I wrote after responding to my team which I did after organizing my day which I took time to do after waking up and making a gut tonic and having a moment where I asked myself: what type of energy do I want to bring today?

The answer? Expansive.

Looking out the window of my urban retreat…

A couple of weeks ago, I felt stress related to “the yoga studio”. It put me into a little bit of soul searching – was this what I wanted to do when I was happily daydreaming & writing my business plan last year? The work being asked of me felt different than I imagined it. There was pressure, uncertainty and a little bit of confusion. That is not how I want to operate. I left corporate America to experience creative freedom, I had to bring back that feeling of fluidity – trust – and inspiration.

Luckily this investigation coincided with the end of summer and the cosmic energy of “back to school” where even the most unorganized of us feel some sort of reboot with the potential of a fresh notebook or organized binder. The gearing up for fall was the perfect time to reframe and loop back to that original vision that had me so inspired to set out on my own yoga business: retreats, restorative yoga, making opportunities for business women and parents and friends and caretakers and tired people to downshift more than the routine 60 minute yoga class or sporadic sound bath.

Over the past two weeks, I have met one on one with every single one of the teachers and providers out of OM to brainstorm their classes, special events and retreats – all focused in on the question of who we want to serve. The guiding principles?

Does it feel simple? Does it feel life-giving? Is it relational?

And the final motif: “everything must feed everything”.

It’s now a Wednesday morning and I got to the studio pretty early… before 7a, and saw the sunrise from our balcony. The studio was open for silence and that 30 minutes is some of my favorite time in the studio each week. I sit on the mat, with others, and let myself just review what is on my heart and mind without the laptop to multi-task or the phone to Google or the chat to GPT. I feel it out.

Studio silence breaks at 8 with a little small group share:

How are we showing up today?

What is our intention?

Then we proceed with toning the chakras – chanting – and the blessing: lokah samastah sukhino bhavntu.

Everybody’s story starts somewhere and, in reflection of this vision (which is coming to fruition) for retreat and time to feel like yourself, I realize OM Old Orchard is what I always wanted my whole life. You know, there are not a ton of places that allow you to truly show up as you are with reduced pressure to spend, to be and to commit.

As a business woman, I am taking some calculated risks experimenting with pricing and programming – so that everything about this place feels supportive. As my therapist says, “the highest form of respect you can show another person is the power of choice.”

I want the business I run to respect you. If that makes sense.

I know that in a few years, some of the questions I am working through will be answered. The methods I am experimenting with will show me what to run with and what to let die on the vine. I am aware this place of growth I am in is because of the growth I did because of a previous season of growth which I was in because I had grown, and so on….

Isn’t it funny how our edges are constant invitations into present moment acceptance? And – ultimately – into the future that is aligned with the seed of who we have always been…

On September 7th, I’ll be offering a free Fall Intention Setting Workshop from my yoga studio & urban retreat… available in person and via recording. The workshop will present a guiding sutra and inspired text. The programming for fall will be themed on a “pre new year’s new year”, as we lay the groundwork for our desired habit changes, health goals and mental peace.

There is still so much work to do to truly articulate how to maximize what we are creating at OM in support of your personal life. It is not about “going to yoga” but about truly giving yourself the reprieve, the break.

I suppose all of this is to say – to my past self, thank you for growing to this place. To my future self, thank you for your patience.

And to my present self: get to work 🙃 ❤️ ✌🏽erin

Curtains & Shadows

Last week, I brought a couple of canvas panels I had once used to create a “crunchy” yogi house vibe up to the studio where Lucy (16 y/o) started putting them together to create some shade in the main studio.

Over the course of her figuring out her machine and getting a few put together, there was some how a mix around and she stitched two in such a way that the fray was out the outside and the vision I was headed towards was lost unless they were redone. I imagine she felt kind of bad, but she was also fatigued from figuring out the bobbin and it was really OK. I just needed to figure out what to do… “restorative yoga starts July 12th”.

I can already tell this blog has a lot to say. Get a coffee or get comfy and just take a deep breath in.

<inhale>

So it’s a week later and in between that MJ infused sewing session and now, the following things have happened:

  1. I walked into my backyard one morning and the exact corner where my fence & house met was lit up with sun (normally total shade) and – upon examination – I saw the sun was perfectly positioned between the branches of two trees, casting a perfect light from a northeast corner of the sky into this corner. Naturally, I made shapes with my shadow and spent some time considering the figure in front of me. What were the odds? This was such a rare alignment. I stayed till the sun moved and my shadow wasn’t as prominent anymore. On to take care of the things, the dogs, the business, the kids, and – my favorite – my husband. In the land of the living, one’s shadow tends not to consume the life.
  2. I went to the fabric store with my mom & picked out some chiffon & some utility white nonsense. We spent the afternoon configuring some panels together so that, by the time my class rolled around, I had a distinctly different tone in the studio as a marker of my first restorative practice taught in the new space.
  3. I taught aforementioned first restorative practice in the new space. The two that stayed for the deep restorative “got there” (saw colors, felt the weighted blanket, experienced a sense of peace / relief in the physical body) and the three that came for the hour of breath / awareness of sensation and opening poses seemed to smile and enjoy the practice. All in all – it worked.

The present moment:

I am at OM and can hear Jane teaching in the main studio. I am in the front room with the next iteration of the curtain. It’s on the floor to my left and I have about one drink of coffee left and 45 minutes before its time to sage & prep the studio for a private party of friends, ready to experience the magic of a solid hour on their mat and in their bodies.

I am in my overalls with some sewing pins & a pen tucked in the pocket. My hair is in what I am hoping appears to be an artsy bun. 🤞🏼

I am deciding to write in this moment because it is not lost on me that the “mistake” Lucy made back in sewing the panels ended up being the starting point of what I am now incredibly excited about. I took the chiffon vibe that “made do” down and hung up the panels Lucy put together using the exposed fray as the crease over the curtain rod across the windows of the studio. It looked so cool. And reminded me of a studio in Santa Monica where I experienced healing. (The picture of their window & curtain is on my desk, if you ever want to see it when you’re here.)

With new inspiration that perhaps the curtain can showcase the creative spirit of the studio, I grabbed some fabric a friend gave me from her trip to Mozambique and began to pin it up the side, adding a little bit of practical width but also a sense of art: the story of women, life milestones and the woven nature of friendship and how friends help you see yourself.

Maybe sad and angry people simply need a good friend…

I think about the people in my life that are grieving, that are hurt, that are lost and that are lonely and my heart kind of aches in this moment.

What will they find on the internet that claims to help them heal?

What will they buy that the world says will make them feel better?

<Lord, have mercy.>

What I love right now is that any shame Lucy might have felt in her mistake can be lifted and resolved, as it was that mistake that reminded me there are no mistakes, only ways in to the next thing – the higher awareness – the light.

I love that in acting on the inspiration, I was reminded of a time I was healed physically by time on my mat, breathing into my body, allowing hydration to settle in and a yoga teacher to guide me through a sequence she thought of from her practice.

This. is. art. This is the constant unfolding.

This is the long game for healing…

Hang with me, check this out –

The panels that Lucy put together were curtains that were once hanging in my house. I had pinned them on the rods and it was good enough for a single working mom who needed a little privacy until a day a gal I went to high school with came over. I wanted help tying my eclectic house together, she was an interior designer whose taste I have always loved; I thought it was a good idea.

As I saw her see my pinned up curtains, I felt an old familiar wave of “being an idiot” wash over me. I hung my head in my own lack of something.

Even now, that flashback flashes me back to my high school years where feeling stupid, feeling left out, wanting to fit in caused me to shapeshift, risk friendship for friendship and ultimately take me into the most isolated years of my life when I am sure the prayers of my parents were from places of worry, wanting me to remember my gifts and my beauty, and to ultimately believe in myself once again.

(They probably also prayed for good friends.)

The shadow is a funny thing:

It comes about in the light, like my shadow in that perfect timing in the sun.

It moves as the light moves, eventually going away (but never gone).

It requires / creates / is shade, which we desire in our studios & homes, bedrooms and porches whether through artsy or IKEA curtains.

Though it requires light to see, the shadow can be felt in the dark.

Yet a shadow is not by definition a shadow if it is felt alone. It must also be seen, thanks to light.

Basically: the interaction with the shadow is always up to you, the meaning you allow is always up to you, your balancing is always up to you.

Will I love the artsy couture curtain once it is hung? Maybe.

Might I be headed to “get something normal” upon seeing my 7th grade quality sewing job hanging on the rod? Also maybe.

But the only right answer? Is the one that comes from this rooted sense of self trust. Trust that interacting with the shadow shows the way through one’s mistakes and ultimately brings in the spirit of the light. ❤️