Yoga, Climbing and the Baby

Yoga.  It is an amazing practice. I had not done any guided yoga since Aven was born, and it has been another one of those activities that I miss deeply.  Wednesday night my girlfriend Bonnie and I met up at a yoga class together, and Michael had little Aven for the hour and a half.  I was so elated to move my body and open up and stretch, along with the deep spirituality and love that flows through me during a session.  Well, it was no surprise to me when Jessie came in and told us that our yoga instructor could not make it that evening.  He had called a couple other folks he knew, but no one was available, so we were going to have an open practice, unless someone volunteered to teach.  After much him-ing and ha-ing and being insecure and nervous, I finally said I would do it!  I taught my very first yoga class and I think it was decent.  I began the practice with a beautiful Anusara chant, and ended with a collective Om.  I covered a few different sun salutation flows and tried to work every part of the body.  I'm pretty critical of myself, so upon reflection there are a lot of things I would have liked to do that I did not incorporate, but hey, the feedback was good and people seemed relaxed and happy.

New Years Eve Morning and 29th birthday breakfast, 2010

Some cranking above a maze of rives on the Root Glacier, Alaska, 2009

Checking out the scene...beautiful! Alaska, 2009

Babies first Christmas.  Daddy love.

Yeah! I got a toothbrush for Christmas!

Oh mom, that coffee was sooooo good.  Just kiddin. Happy girl in the park with her baby friends.

 So, I did not get to do much yoga that night, and my body still feels pretty tight, but I am thankful for the powerful experience.  It was good to get a feel for teaching again because on Monday I will be guiding my first clients in my rock climbing guiding gig for Rubicon Outdoors, out to the Watson Lake Dells for a half day of climbing.  I feel a bit nervous.  I have not done any guiding since Alaska 2009...wow, it has been that long?  So much life has happened since that fateful summer! The guide/client interaction does not make me nervous, I love love love interacting with people and introducing them to a new parts of the world and a new sport, it is more the technical aspect of the day that makes me nervous.  This is funny to me because I just taught a yoga class, which is not something I am trained to do and have not spent much time on in my life, and climbing and teaching climbing are things I have been doing for the past 24 years...consistently.  Its like breathing for me.

Some really good news just came my way yesterday too, I was asked to guide another day on Thursday, and lucky me, my momma will be in town, so she can watch Aven.  For Monday Michael is going to take Aven for 4 hours and then my girlfriend Rachel will have her for the last 2 hours.  Oh man, that makes me nervous. What is going to make or break this thing depends on how much milk I can get pumped, then I get to do it all again for Thursday.  I am so uncertain about leaving my girl for that long.  We haven't been away from each other for more than 3 1/2 hours.

So, it is good that I am getting my rhythm back with climbing, now it is all about finding the balance between mommy-dom and climbing-dom.

It is Friday, thank goodness.  I love having my honey's company for the weekend.  Baby is sleepin' and I think I'll head that direction myself.