Take it slow

804

I thought I was all ready for this new year. I had, have, a list of posts I want to write and I was all determined to start off the new year and do at least one every other week. So far, that does not seem to have happened.

Work things seemed to take more time than I expected and on top of that I have started going to my parents house every week to clean for them. It was originally for just a few a weeks as their cleaner was going to be away but nearly 3 months later and it seems that she has abandoned them completely. They are 86 and 79. My Mum is physically disabled now, crumbling bones are taking their toll. She can’t lift, she can’t stand to iron (I know, who irons? The answer is, my parents generation) Anyway, it is one day a week. Doesn’t seem like much but it basically means I only have 4 days for work or I work at the weekends and I have come to realise that is not good for my mental or even my physical health so unless it’s an absolutely emergency I don’t do it.

I don’t actually mind the cleaning for them. It is nice to have to that time with my parents and to feel like I am really helping them. They seem to enjoy it too and I know the truth is the time left with them is potentially short. No one lives for ever and so while they are here I want to capture what I can. So I am definitely not complaining. It is just all part of life changing and shifting and so their has been less time for writing and that is OK. It’s how it is, for now.

However, one of the things I wanted to write about was February Photofest. If you are new round here Feb PhotoFest is a month long photography challenge that I run. You can find all the information here but I just wanted to let everyone know it will definitely be running next month and if you like joining in with Sinful Sunday and fancy a month long challenge then check it out. You can totally join in on Twitter, Mastodon or IG if you think your images are IG acceptable. Just make sure you promote the FebPhotoFest page to your followers now and then on your account too. All the details of how to join in etc are on the FebPhotoFest page.

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I might actually get time to write some other content here but also, maybe I won’t and the thing I have learned over the last couple of years is that is absolutely OK. This is my blog, my space, it should work for me, not me for it.

And so this week image,

I have finally returned to Yoga after nearly 9 months off. I did try picking it up back in the summer but my wrist still felt weak and unstable and so I stopped again. Finally, after months, it seems to have healed and after doing some reading I have made some changes to which surface I do Yoga on in order to provide more support. We are days 12 days into the 30 Days of Yoga and not a twinge in sight. I am truly excited that it is may finally be OK again and maybe, just maybe 2024 could be the year of 365 days of Yoga. Clearly I don’t want to get carried away as we are only on day 13 but I am hopeful. The closest I got was in 2020 when I think I managed about 280 days. If I could beat that I would be overjoyed.

I am loving being back on the mat. I can already feel the difference in my body, my shoulders are less stiff and my back too. That first week was hard, my hips hurt, my stomach muscles were not happy and the whole thing felt hard. I realised how much flexibility and strength I had lost over the last 9 months but I know I can get it back. Yoga is a slow game,a little and often and after a week you see tiny changes and after a month even more and so on. It is also good for my mind. The breathing, the slowness of it, the quietness and focus. My brain is busy, loud, constant. It has taken me ages to be able to not fidget during yoga, to not get impatient and skip through the track to the movement bits but this time it’s like my brain remembers. It slipped back into it effortlessly, like it remembered how to be in those moments or maybe like it needed it. Like I needed it.

So my picture? It is of my soft body. My beautiful soft body that carries me through this world and moves me or even holds me still on the yoga mat. That I am hugely privileged to have and use in all sorts of ways, from cleaning my parents house, walking the dog, doing yoga and other fun naked body activities too. Loving my body is always a work in progress but in this image, in this moment. I love it.

“It’s also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that’s sitting right here right now… with its aches and it pleasures… is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive.” ~ Pema Chodron