happy new year

It has been almost a year since my last mompoet post. Today I was out on my run, and I decided it's time to start blogging again. I have made a few changes this year. I think blogging will help me make sense of things as I go along. If it's interesting for anyone to read, that's good too.

I have stopped trying to explain to myself why I stopped blogging. I think a lot of factors have contributed, but really, I think it's just because I like to do one leisure/creative/expressive thing for a few years, with all my passion and all of my heart, then take a break, or switch to something else. I can see that in the way I set down my writing and slam poetry practice, and joined a choir. It's that way with my fitness activities too. For a long time I chose spin class and weight room. Then it was mostly walking. Now I'm trying something new: running and yoga. It feels right, right now, so I am enjoying the moment and looking forward to an exploration of new things.

I do like new things. I may pick up the old again - hopefully that's the case with blogging. But what's important is that I am doing things that are interesting, meaningful and encourage me to be open, curious and generous.

I have been in bit of a slump for the past year or so. I found that I have been watching television more than I think is good, and looking forward to a glass of wine almost every day after work. This is not shockingly unhealthy behaviour. It's just that there's so much better available. Although I have maintained a reasonable level of physical activity, and stayed artistically active and spiritually engaged, life has been a bit blah. I don't like blah. I like juicy, challenging, exciting. I have, in a nutshell, been resting too much.

So here goes.

Three weeks ago, I started running with a Sun Run in Training group. We meet one evening each week to run together, then through the week I do two more runs on my own, following a training program set out by Sports Medicine BC. I used to run when I was in university. But that was 30 years ago. I trust the Sun Run program will be a safe an fun way to get myself back to where I can do a 10k. The real goal is to find the calm and zestful feeling that I remember from my old running days. It's like an active rest that makes air and water taste better for the rest of the day. I want to do it without injuring myself, so that I can make it part of my ongoing practice. I'll blog about my experiences as a 53 year old learning to run again. I expect there may be a little TMI from time to time (too much information), but I will try to give advance warning, so you can decide to read those parts or not.

Last weekend, I signed up for an introductory month of yoga classes at Moksha Yoga in Burnaby. It's hot yoga, and it is lovely. I did yoga through my employee fitness at work about 10 years ago, but I never really got into it. I remember thinking that the stretches were too difficult, and holding the poses was too hard. I feel insufficient. That's not how you are supposed to feel in a yoga class. I decided that this was not for me. My daughter practices yoga. She encouraged me to try it and told me that her experience with Moksha during a summer theatre stint was very good. I have been to 4 classes already, and I love it. There's so much space to find my way through the series of poses, and I am feeling the good feelings. I have an energy and openness that I haven't felt in a long time. This is good stuff.

That's all for now. I am going to hit the shower, then cook a yummy lunch. I'll talk to you soon!

question: what makes you feel open, curious and generous?

mompoet - trying new things