Dog Ball Central in Everyday Ramblings

Burr. It is cold and damp and we are firmly entrenched in fall.

My volunteer coordinator is taking a rare vacation next week and told everyone that Tuesday night was my last night teaching on the unit. But I am scheduled through next week. I’ll see it through. I actually enjoyed the teaching part this week. Two tired, (new to me) moms and one enthusiastic one in for another round of chemo with her son. There is one family in isolation because of a bone marrow transplant that I hope to be able to say goodbye to next week.

One of the themes I have been working on lately is releasing tension by working on easing the gripping or scrunching we get in our connective tissue that overlies our muscles and one of the tools that is quite useful in that are dog balls.

They are a bit tougher than tennis balls. The studio had a bag of them for a time and I would use those until they disappeared. So this week I bought a bag online. And I took them up to the hospital with me and after showing my students how to use them I gave them the balls they were using.

It didn’t seem fair to show them a technique on how to make them feel a little less sore and then take the tool away at the end of class.

But I didn’t think that through and now my Monday evening class is so much bigger I don’t have enough balls for them. So today I ordered more.

I am not sure they will be able to continue with the Caregiver program. They haven’t even started vetting a replacement candidate. For the level of both skill and maturity they are looking for the only teachers they have contacted want to get paid. The responsibility is an intense emotional challenge and I totally get that.

This is the last week I teach four classes, as tomorrow will be my last Friday class.

I am excited about winding the energy expenditure down.

My pool of accumulated vacation time (including the few days off next week) is down to zero. At this point I am making up the time I am off to teach and that makes for long weeks.

Last night after I came home I binge watched 3 episodes of the final season of True Blood. I never watch anything anymore. Weeks and weeks will go by without any visual entertainment other than watching online or DVD yoga practices. It was kind of fun… in an intoxicating sort of way.

I am grateful for warm coats and the ability to carry on through my days as planned. I am grateful for running hot water and the resources to feed the cats, the wild birds and myself. I am grateful for my ability to communicate, unskilled, as it sometimes appears to be in real life.

Enjoy your day. And if you would like a dog ball, I am soon to have “extras”.

Last updated October 23, 2015