Getting Out!!

I am having the best day!! I just got home from a yoga class with Cathy at her Yogaflirt studio. It felt so good to drive Stella Blue, listen to Michael Franti and be out and about on a beautiful, warm, summery day. Michael's latest album is so happy and positive. It never fails to inspire me.

The yoga itself was, of course, amazing and wonderful. I knew everyone there, and discovered that Becca's sister was my student when she was in the 7th grade. Randy was there and he recognized her. So awesome to practice with Randy again, too. I was amazed at the poses I was able to do. I did forearm stand, and it has been four months since I have done a real inversion. I'm gratified that I have the strength to do so. I did bound side angle pose, pigeon pose...the only thing I still can't do is a vinyasa. For you non-yoga people, that is going from plank pose down to up dog and back to down dog. My core is still too sketchy for that, I guess, and I believe I have some fear about lowering down to my belly. If you had seen me just day before yesterday you would be blown away that I can do any of this. I owe this to my private classes with my rock star teachers, Jean and Cathy, and to 15 months of yoga after my last battle, and to levels one through four of yogaflirt. The yogaflirt warm up is amazing and builds lots of strength, and swinging on that pole takes more strength than you would expect. It's amazing how much strength you can gain from a class that happens once a week. I firmly believe that the universe sent me Cathy and Jean so that I have the tools to overcome this cancer. I am meant to grow and learn from this cancer journey, but I am also meant to kick its butt. I have many students left to teach and many more yoga poses left to master.

Some day I am going to become a yoga teacher. I want to share it with everyone because it has done so much for me. I also can't imagine retiring and not teaching anything anymore. I am very inspired by my friend Bob Canepa, who retired from teaching and found himself a new career and a new passion in his photography. He and Randy Robertson were my mentors, and I am still learning from them today. I will miss them both every day at school, for the rest of my career. We had a beautiful thing going on when we were a team, with Ed Goshorn and Debbie Martin, and we shared the same kids and the same prep period. They were our glory days of teaching and Debbie and I miss it, every day. It was a lot more fun to be a teacher at AJHS then, and more fun being a student, too. The kids also learned more, but No Child Left Behind put an end to quality teaching and learning. Today we are producing robots who can bubble in on a standardized test. I hope there is enough of my career left for the pendulum to swing back the other way.

I am certainly rambling today!! I'm just having such a great day, and I'm going to have a great evening, too. Susan is coming over and bringing me her yummy lasagna and her wonderful kids, Trevor and Cassidy. I love them like they were my own, and I am missing having kids in my life right now.

All of these things, combined with my Anti Cancer book, are making me feel very happy and very positive right now. Life can be awesome, even when you have cancer!

Namaste, Jill