All In in Everyday Ramblings

Last year on my birthday I took the day off from work and Most Honorable and I went hiking on a mixed-use trail built on an old railway line through the mountains that separate Portland from the Oregon Coast. We only hiked a small portion of it but my private yoga student has been hiking it in chunks over the last couple of months. This trail gets a lot of usage on the weekends.

I often think of the adventurous men who built these railroads and our roads through the Columbia River Gorge, what their lives were like on these crews, the risks, the joys, the uncertainties and the incredible backbreaking labor.

My student told me on Friday that the fact that I am not judgmental about her body gave her the confidence to do the Naked Bike Ride, which was a wild dream she’d had for many years. She enjoyed the sensation of freedom and the equalizing factor of everyone being without clothing and how after a time everyone is just someone else. Her husband decided to go with her and it all worked out.

What I notice about her after a year of private sessions once or twice a week is that her range of motion has increased, her strength, her flexibility but more than that is her ability to completely relax and be present in her body. She doesn’t practice without me on her own yet but we are getting close. It is very exciting to see. Today I gave her a link to

for preparing to go for a hike or a run as her homework for when I am gone next week. (This is Olga, my teacher.) I think she may just do it. It helps me with my hips that tend to tighten up when I walk for more than three miles at a time and I shared that with her. For me that hip pain refers into my upper back and I get all stiff there. The body awareness I have learned over the years helped me figure that out.

This week I work three days and then get to run away from home for four days. My poor cat sitter had to put her dog down yesterday. He has been sick and needing much care for the last couple of years and she is pretty devastated. She says she is looking forward to hanging with Sammy or “The Tammers” as she calls him. I couldn’t make this trip without her support and I am super grateful.

We are all in this together you know. It sure seems like some people forget that with devastating consequences doesn’t it? Sigh.