New Year, New Yama

A year ago today I was at my parents' house in Las Vegas for our annual holiday get-together: kids, grandkids, in-laws, and more. I was thrilled to be there, even more than usual; in the autumn, my youngest had gone off to college, and I had been living alone for the first time in my life.  I didn't like it much.

Okay, I hated it. It wasn't just that I found coming home every night to an empty cottage however quaint depressing. It was the fact that I no longer had a reason to get up in the morning. After more than thirty years of raising kids, suddenly they were gone. Game over.

Now what? Sitting there in the midst of all the Christmas chaos surrounded by the fruits of my labors (literally) once more, I knew I'd better find something to do--or my first New England winter alone would be the longest on record.

"There's not enough yoga or gin to get me through the winter," I told my daughter-in-law Eliane.

"You should become a yoga teacher," she said.

I laughed. "I don't think so. I can't stand on my head. "

"You'll learn."

"I don't think so," I didn't like being upside down. Period. Which naturally said more about me than I intended.
Long story short: Twelve days later I attended my first teacher training with Michelle Fleming at Sanctuary Studios in Plymouth, Massachusetts. http://www.findsanctuary.com/

I learned to stand on my head. I learned to teach yoga. I learned to come home to an empty house. Happily. (At least most of the time.)

New Year, New Yama

In gratitude for the gifts that 2011 brought me, I decided to that 2012 should be the year that I gave back. By December I had a plan: The Year of Giving. Starting January 1, I'd give something away every day for 365 days.

I was unduly pleased with myself, and you know what that means: Disaster. My comeuppance came swiftly; on December 9, I got laid off.

What to do? How could I pledge to give something away for 365 days when I didn't know where or when I'd see my next paycheck? I have a kid in college and a mortgage and a car payment and, well, you know the drill.

And you know as well as I do that none of that really matters. God has a sense of humor--or at least a sense of irony. Which means I'm still planning to give something to somebody somewhere every day for the next 365 days. There are all kinds of ways to give back, and some of the most appreciated gestures are those in which no money changes hands.

So today I started The Year of Giving where they say charity should begin: At home. I gave my daughter the tired mother of two a neck massage, my older son the writer a book idea, and my younger son cab fare home from the Las Vegas Strip (where he got stranded on New Year's Eve, along with some 300,000 other adventurers).

I'll be back at my cottage, sans famille, soon. With 364 days to go....

Happy New Year--and may 2012 be a year of giving and receiving the best of everything for you and yours!