Hurricane Iniki, the calm after the storm…

The Calm after the Storm 

I survived a category five hurricane.

Hurricane Iniki slammed ashore on the island of Kauai September 11, 1992 and I road it out at the Kapaa High School gymnasium.

It began as a peaceful, sunny day and then, for about 8 hours, all hell broke loose.

Right smack dab in the middle of the fury – the eye of the storm – there was a sweet and gentle reprieve.  I even recall hearing birds chirping.

Then, BOOM!
The tail end of the storm hit.  It blew the roof off the gymnasium that was doing its best to serve as our shelter.

Eventually the storm passed and it became eerily still.
A sense of ‘what will come next?’ washed over.

Funny.  My July has felt just a bit like Iniki, minus all the destruction, of course.

There have been BIG, exciting and scary moments!  A flurry of powerful energy and activity.

As I mentioned last week, I got to kick off Yoga Rocks the Park with a bang.
Hot on the heels of that event was The Great Namaste where, with WDS and my pal Jen, I lead 808 people to break a yoga world record. I’ve never guided nearly 1,000 people in my life.  Well, I can’t say that anymore!
The very next day I was blessed to teach in the Portland park blocks to the beats of one of my favs, DJ Drez.
A whirlwind of goodness.

Then, a couple days of stillness…aaaah, it was the sweet and gentle reprieve.

It was the eye of the storm!

The tail-end of the excitement was our adventures at Wanderlust Tahoe.

BOOM! 

Five classes in four days and so much excitement that several times I thought I would pass out!

And now, we’re home, it’s eerily still
and there’s a sense of ‘what will come next?’  

To be honest, it’s been like this for two years as I’ve worked to further establish my yoga business, to serve, to nurture and grow my community; to create new, exciting ways of sharing what I love SO MUCH.  I’ve pushed myself well outside of my comfort zone, saying “yes” to things before I was quite sure how I would accomplish them.  And, THEN finding a way.  I’ve learned so much, grown tremendously, been scared, confused, excited, full of joy and gratitude.

Among other things in the last two years…

My Elevate Yoga Trainings has graduated THREE amazing groups of teachers…

We’ve been on retreat in Mexico to both Prana del Mar and Xinalani…

I’ve had the great pleasure of collaborating with so many of my favorite yoga teachers and musicians…

I’ve enjoyed lots of karma yoga events with Living Yoga, Stretch for Survivors, Kick Cancer’s Asana and others.

I SOOOOOOO LOVE MY “JOB”. I LOVE MY LIFE.

Still wondering what will come next?

REST.

Finding balance is incredibly important.
I talk about it in almost every yoga class.

It’s time to practice what I preach.

So, we are unplugging.

Last year, we bought a 1984 Cheiftain Winnebago form my dad down in Santa Barbara. We had the most amazing time traveling up the coast through areas of sand dunes, beautiful beach towns, through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge, we camped under the redwoods, and finally brought “Shorty” home to PTown. She’s been out a couple times since to Cannon Beach, Pacific City and out to Timothy Lake.

But, on August 10th we’ll get a REAL taste of the RV life.

We will be gone for THREE WEEKS visiting places like the metolious river, Crater Lake, Ashland and we’ll spend the last two weeks traveling up the Oregon coast.

I can’t wait.

My awesome little unit of a family can’t wait!

It’s the calm after the PERFECT STORM and we can’t WAIT to soak it up!

#goshorty