Namaste

I am on a mental health break. What that means right now is that I have just finished a yoga class where I got in headstand in the middle of the room with just a little assist from the teacher. Definitely a personal best. It also means I am at The Standard Hotel and Spa in Miami Beach on a gorgeous clear and sunny day. There is a couple sitting together in the outside bathtub on the patio next to mine, probably deeply regretting that the old bag in yoga clothes is sitting on her patio typing emails and surfing the Internet. What it means, above all, is that I have spent four wonderful days and nights with my darling daughter first at the Yoga Journal conference and then in Miami. We punished our bodies by doing six hours of yoga in one day and then arrived in Miami where we treated ourselves to an amazing two hour treatment during which we were scrubbed, massaged, baked in clay and bathed in hot water. Blissful!

I may be far away from my normal life having a sybaritic interlude in the weirdness of Miami but my thoughts whirl around in the same circles. How did this happen to me? What am I to do? How do I live my life now? I'm going back for Thanksgiving, that ritual gathering and feeding of the family which I always take pleasure in making happen. But it will be so different this year without Steve to stand up and make his usual long, rambling, and slightly drunken toast sending his love out to all of us.

Sometimes at the beginning of a yoga practice, the instructor will suggest setting an intention for the practice. I am setting my intention for Thanksgiving this year. I am dedicating it to Steve.