Setting Intentions
March 2023 Slice of Life challenge
Wow, I can’t believe it’s the last day of the Slice challenge. I will definitely be doing this again next year. I really enjoyed challenging myself to think about every day things and to try and make them interesting via my writing. I also enjoyed reading other people’s thoughts and reactions to their everyday happenings. Without a daily assignment I don’t think I will continue to write a daily blog. As I mentioned in an earlier post I had a running blog years ago and it ended up becoming a huge stress in my life. I struggled to do just one post a week. Once I let it go I had more room to breathe. I’m not sure what will happen this time exactly. Never say never, but I do know that I will at least be taking a break. My life is just one big repetitive routine and things start to seem uninteresting when it’s what you do day in and day out. It’s hard to think that anyone would want to read about my routines. This time it ended up being okay and I was able to find different situations and thoughts within my routines to have different topics to write about each day. That being said routines in all our lives were turned upside down and now my new routine seems boring (not to me but I imagine to others) again. I am not sure I’m up for the pressure of making it interesting to my readers. I also want to offer a huge thank you to everyone who participated in this Slice for my reading pleasure. So peace out for now, it's been a pleasure.
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Is today the last day of this slice challenge or is it tomorrow? Either way it doesn’t matter because we all know I have the time. It’s a good thing I have something pressing on my mind to write about. Ok, so really it’s nothing too pressing.
My current not so deep thought: I’ve been testing out several options for at home workouts. I had to turn my 5 days a week at the gym and 2 days a week at the yoga studio into something I could do at home. I have some equipment at home like dumbbells of various (heavier) weights, yoga mat and props, ankle weights and resistance bands left over from physical therapy. I wish I still had my lighter weights but I can’t seem to locate them. I have a vague memory of maybe dropping them off at Goodwill thinking I wouldn’t need them. And damn how I wish I still had them now. I was also able to order a pad for ab exercises before the Amazon “essentials only” rule became a thing. But I digress. After unsuccessfully trying to do my usual gym/yoga routine which required too many modifications I realized quickly that was unrealistic and I needed to try something new. So I download several apps to try out. Peloton, Beachbody, Daily Burn and Yoga Collective were a few. I figured with all the free trial offers it would fill some time to try them all. So my gripe is with the Peloton app. I’ve been using the strength training workouts for core and both upper and lower body . During the workouts, which were streamed live originally, the instructor is calling out screen names of those participating and also congratulating participants on their milestones. For example, “Yay 100 class milestone for stronggirl301!” or “Way to burn it out Toughguy1989!” I could tolerate these shoutouts during my strength workouts but when I tried the Peleton yoga class I couldn’t believe they were doing these same type of shoutouts when we were holding poses. If you know yoga at all you know it’s supposed to be quiet, contemplative and very internal. Let me just say, huge fail Peloton, huge fail. Enough with the shoutouts already I'm trying to do some yoga. I guess I will be moving on to the Yoga Collective app in hopes for a more zen experience with my at home yoga. First my gym closed, then a few days later my yoga studio closed. Like everyone else I have had to resort to working out from home. Luckily, I was recently cleared to begin running again so I recruited my 13 year old daughter to join me. She needed something to journal about for her PE e-learning requirement. We started the Ease into 5K app together. We go on a run every other day. She is a beginner and I am starting from the beginning so we are a perfect match. Having her as my new running partner is a dream come true. It has granted us much needed alone time to chat. She shared the same sentiment, which swells my heart. However, she has asked me, “Mom, when am I gonna start liking this?” I explained to her that training from 0-3 miles is the most challenging and adding on more time/miles to that is much much easier. Once we've establish our base we will be golden. We skipped week one of the program because it was too easy, soared through week two and currently struggling through week three. I’m excited to run a solid 3.1 miles again without stopping. And this time I get to enjoy not only my accomplishment but my daughter's too.
This shelter in place has my body telling me that I naturally require 9-11 hours of sleep each night. Since I have no where to go I don’t set an alarm for me or anyone else in my family. I figure sleep is good for the immune system and it can also help us use up some of the extra time that we have in abundance. Admittedly everyone else in my house wakes up WAY before me. I am surprised when I roll over and look at the clock each morning. Today I was shocked when I saw 9:53am but was still in no hurry to pull myself out of my bed to start the day. Before this change in routine I was getting up before 5am each morning and heading to the gym. Every hour of each day was jam packed with a non-negotiable agenda item. I was go-go-going and I was just about at the end of my rope with it too. Spring break couldn’t have been more needed. When school was called off I was weirdly relieved that my tight schedule was going to diminished and diminish very quickly. Sleeping a lot with no sense of rush to start my day may sound like I’m down or depressed but I actuality falling in line with this new slow way of life. It’s confirmed that I am a homebody , introvert or whatever you want to call it and I am thriving. Once awake I am easily motivated to cook, bake, workout, write and work. I accomplish everything I want to each day and I can do it in my own time and on my own terms.
Are you enjoying the slower paced life we’ve been forced to live or are you essential and still go-go-going? Often times at the beginning of yoga class the instructor will ask the class to pause for a moment to set an intention for practice. In this particular moment I usually draw a blank and I question myself, “Why AM I here?” Do I have a specific reason to be here in this yoga class today? I’m there to physically challenge my body. I am there to connect each movement with a breath or a sigh. I’m there to just BE with myself devoid of any expectations from anyone outside myself. I’m also there for the hot temperatures, high humidity and the detoxifying sweat I release. But I know that is not what my teacher is asking. Rather she is asking me to establish a mantra or a positive affirmation which I can contemplate throughout my practice. I’m still drawing a blank. I think because what I need is just that, a blank, a void which encompass my mind/body/spirit for the 75 minutes I am on my mat. And that my friends must be MY intention.
My daughter has been meeting via Zoom with her 4th grade teacher and classmates each week while we are observing the shelter in place order. I listen in for my own entertainment and I heard a few funny things. Things that I am all too familiar with that happen inside my classroom too.
Her [absolutely marvelous] teacher is trying to run a serious meeting. The students are asked to share a book they’ve been reading and if they recommend it or not. When it is this one boy’s turn to speak he instead solicits the other boys in the meeting to get their Fortnight user names. And the teachers like, “Hey, hey I’m not here to organize your fortnight gaming.“ I bust out laughing. And then another student is reporting what he’s been up to and says that he’s doing nothing, staying in bed and playing video games all day long. Then the teacher says, “Oh I understand, you’re reading and doing your math packet.” Which also made me chuckle. And let’s not forget the students chiming in with their tech savvy suggestions about screen sharing, muting and shortcuts that the teacher is just only starting to understand. And for all this…. My daughter makes sure to be all dressed up, presentable and ready to share with her classmates. She’s got one up on me because I stay in my pajamas and don’t even attempt to get out of my bed for my Zoom meetings. Did anyone else start this project with a little bit of dread that you were going to have this assignment hanging over your head each day for 30 days in a row?! And now you’re wondering what you are going to do without it? Yeah, that’s me. My life is a little less busy so to speak and I enjoy having a routine of sitting down and writing each day. I also enjoy having the extra time to read everyone else’s posts. I know I can always continue to keep this blog going as long as I choose but there’s something about being in this together and making connections with each other every day. Thank you to those who have read my ramblings thus far. I hope you’ve enjoyed my slices no matter how big or small. Even if I haven’t commented know that I have been keeping up with many of your blogs and I thank you for sharing.
When I step outside on a very clear sunny day my nose starts to tickle. Then I look up towards the light of the sun and I can easily bring on a forceful, yet highly enjoyable sneeze. This usually happens when I step out of my car in a store parking lot and those who happen to be passing by will politely offer me the standard sneeze blessing. I always have to declare, “Oh that was just a sun sneeze!” as if it’s not an official bless worthy sneeze. I know this phenomenon happens to my youngest daughter too. Anyone else?
I confessed a few posts back that I wrote some of my slice posts before the COVID-19 situation changed our lives. Now I'd think twice about enjoying a sun sneeze in public. My friend bought some deodorant at Costco that didn’t work well for her so she gave me the other 3 containers knowing that I would put them to good use. The brand is the kind I use but the scent is not my usual.
I recently started using this new deodorant and the smell, vanilla rose, brought me right back 13 plus years ago to my late grandmother’s house. This vanilla rose scent smells the exact same as my grandmother’s bathroom. Specifically her powder room on the first floor. It was located in the hallway off the kitchen next to her back door. The tile work was blue, the toilet may have been blue at one time, but was probably updated and no longer matches the left over dark blue tile work. The toilet seat was one of those squishy ones for comfort. There were shell shaped soaps in a dish and a dark blue hand towel with embroidered flowers both sitting next to the sink. The wall has metal shelves that held extra hand towel and a couple of different air fresheners. One was an old aerosol spray can with a sticky peeling label and a rusty bottom. The other was a plastic cone shaped contraption that you twisted open to expose scented jelly to the air. My grandmother lived less than a mile from the home where I grew up so I used this bathroom for my entire life. That is until my grandmother passed away 13 years ago and we sold her house. I haven’t thought of my grandmother’s house in quite sometime and definitely haven’t reminisced about her powder room, but isn’t is strange that a scented deodorant can so clearly draw those memories right out of my brain? Can you see something out of place, out of order even and walk by without it affecting you? Maybe you don’t even notice the mess or the inconsistency? Is it way off your radar?
No, no, no. Absolutely no. I see things out of place and it’s impossible for me NOT to fix it, NOT to put it back in it’s proper place. I will never NOT notice it. And until it’s fixed it will tug at me until it’s organized, cleaned or back where it is suppose to be. It’s both a curse and a blessing. It was a tiny curse when some fool put back the dumbbells at the gym in the wrong places. I noticed immediately and I even thought to myself, “Leave those there., not your problem” And I did leave them… Okay for like 60 seconds until I just HAD to reorganize them. Now it’s a blessing that I have an unlimited amount of time at home. I can use some of my time to clean, organize and put things back where they belong. And the. my family can start the cycle all over again, the curse. |
AMRK-6 Music Teacher Archives
March 2022
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