It Is Time.

This past year has been right on track:  still piecing life together in a way that makes sense to my heart, and feeling my way through memories and situations and allowing the healing process to return, over and over again.  There is so much love in this world.  

It is time!  We take the next step because the steps were already there for us.  They always are.  We can dance blindly around that first step for our entire lives, or we can just acknowledge the fact that it's there.  You might have to trip over it a couple of times before you finally see it, but it's there.  I saw my path all lit up and shining when I was in Australia last summer.  I felt the pulse of a small community on the Gold Coast of Aussie called "Byron Bay."  I felt the people moving together, enjoying life, taking care of the ocean, the whales, the beauty of this planet.  I felt them taking responsibility for their time here.  I know this happens all over the planet, all the time.  But for me, until I feel something, I just "know" it, and I can't move from knowing, I have to move from feeling.  And I felt myself move out there.  I felt it when I saw the whales breaching.  I felt it when Kevin, Maggie and I watched the moon rise over the water at night.  I felt it when I saw, for the first time, a lighthouse, at the end of the shore, with its bright light searching each night for lost ships.  I felt movement, and life's fleeting dance.  I watched Aussies roam around town barefoot.  I watched as my graceful hostess, Maggie, picked up hitchhikers whom she knew, and took them across town, and dropped them off ~ simply because they needed a ride.  That's the Byron Bay way.  They help each other.  They don't judge because they don't put their energy towards judging.  They'd rather be planting gardens, swimming, laughing, eating wholesome food.  They don't live in as much fear as I have known over the years.  I felt movement.  I saw that first step right in front of my feet. 

It's scary to see those steps sometimes.  I've enjoyed dancing around mine over the last few years.  I've loved the path I chose, to teach yoga and paint.  To live in Wimberley and make face and body sprays because I got tired of chemicals and "junk" being put in my body everyday.  To enjoy the community of people here, watching the ebb and flow of life, the creek, my own heart.  But when I returned home from Australia, a seed was planted.  I knew I had to open a yoga studio in the town where I was raised.  I knew I had to find a way to do that, even though I had no idea how.  I knew I had to do this because it wasn't about me at all.  It was the next step I had to take in order to help us trust the process of life, of finding our next step, of taking care of each other and our community.  It had always been there. 

The pieces came together so fast.  We couldn't have done it without the community coming together to make it happen.  My best, oldest friend, Jody Jennings Doss, and I decided to partner and open "Red Dawg Hot Yoga" and nothing has felt so RIGHT in my entire life.  I'm grateful to so many people for helping us through this process.  So many yoga instructors along the way have given me advice, and helped me make the bigger decisions on where to spend money.  Cary Byrd designed our website!!  Cary is married to my ex-husband's little sister, and to have their support was so beautiful for me.  Connections are not severed when a marriage ends.  Love is always there.  And we have amazing teachers with diverse backgrounds in yoga training and teaching.  Now we all have a place where we can teach and practice, in an open environment, where we can explore and grow.

My heart is full.  And I feel my roots dancing.  I can't wait to reach a lot of people in our community with this healing hot yoga that has become my greatest love.  I can't wait to watch them experience joy from opening their spines, their shoulders, and their hearts.  And I can't wait to watch the ripple effect it always creates.

We open May 1st.