Blossoms in the Rain in Everyday Ramblings

This is a quick shot in the rain Thursday midday while scurrying to a bus shelter. Today it rained even harder. The daffodils are taking it hard, but they are resilient.

One of my students was getting PT a couple of months ago for a lower back issue and he sent me the exercises he was given. It was a jumbled mess of way too many exercises in random order, and I am like how he is going to make any sense of this.

There were no warmup movements, and I thought a few of them might be too strong for him. I wanted to see them to see what I could incorporate into our classes. He is a nice guy, very people oriented, and has been coming to my classes pretty much once a week for about 10 years with his partner.

So, I made notes and put together a half hour recorded practice for him. He’s younger than most of my students so I was able to do the more challenging movements and ones utilizing the floor for him. It blew him away that I did this. I made the video mostly generic so it wouldn’t drive him nuts to follow along repeatedly. He has done that and at first, he began to feel much better. Then he started to have some new concerns.

And at that point the PT outfit he was going to stop accepting his health plan. Kind of nuts, as he works for Nike. But he got a new PT, one he likes a lot, in a different system where he has a dedicated PT that he sees repeatedly. The new PT thinks that maybe the intensity of the practice may have surfaced a physiological issue. I got his new exercises as well. No surprise. They are just regular yoga movements without the breathing cues. All of them.

He was so grateful for the attention I was giving him that he insisted that the two of them take me to dinner. We compromised on brunch and then with scheduling conflicts, breakfast. My favorite meal out.

I think I have only seen these two once in person (as I teach exclusively online now) since the pandemic started. It was so great to see them! (Even though I had terrible social anxiety beforehand that had nothing to do with them.) I thoroughly enjoyed catching up embodied and they took me to their favorite restaurant, and it was quirky and perfect. They even picked me up and brought me home. What a luxury.

It was great to take a time out and hang out. I need to do more of that. Mrs. Sherlock has been elsewhere engaged, and I have been lucky to see her once every five weeks or so outside of class. We are supposed to walk tomorrow. She has joined the local garden club where she is living now.

There is an organization, a non-profit in that area that gathers corporate volunteers to do bonding workshops which basically consist of able-bodied folks getting together and going to old people’s houses and cleaning up their gardens. Another one of my students had a whole team of coworkers from a local company out week before last to help with the long-needed cleanup from a storm we had last year.

And they are going to come out to Mrs. Sherlock’s new place and get her modest new garden started. They do this for free. Very very cool. The two didn’t know that each other were getting this help. It was fun when they found out that they shared this gift.

I am learning not to take some of the contentious behavior of a couple of my fellow League board member to heart. It has been hard won, this learned distancing. We have had it going on this week.

Monday, I had one board meeting with the League and Tuesday a board meeting with The Open Road. It was a lot. Next week I only have one in person meeting on Wednesday and the one other meeting I have is Zoom and optional.

And! It is finally going to start to warm up. Man, this last gasp of winter has been a bit hard to take and I know, I know, we get spring relatively early here, but I am used to it and spoiled by it.

The last batch of seeds I started was a fail. Not sure why as I grew a whole set of seeds earlier that are potted up and ready to go into the cold frame when that warmth gets here. I hope I can figure out what the issue is. I need plants you know, to fill out the garden and I would much rather grow then from seed.

What do they say…applicable to restoring democracy in our fair land as well…

If at first you don’t succeed…