I've got seven projects going for the summer. Things that percolated over months and crystallized into a plan in May. Things like daily blogging and creating a collection of short fiction from material I've been working on for several years, scheduling and teaching workshops and classes, finalizing and releasing my poetry book, completing the prep work for a Soul Collage facilitator training, setting and holding boundaries at work in order to create more balance, dealing with home and life clutter.
It's an ambitious plan.
I've also got energy around all these things. And I'm not obsessing over them. If I need to let go of something or step it back, I'll be able to do that. But I also have discerned that their time has come. When we're ready, it's possible to do the things we set out to do.
I got really clear with myself that I am complete around these projects. They are enough for the 100 days I committed to them. So I was surprised to find myself easily committing to an eighth project. And it's probably the most difficult of them all. Mainly because I don't know that I'm ready to do this.
My yoga studio, Yoga Love in Yardley, PA, put out a challenge to its community to stop buying single-use plastics for 64 days - July 1 through Labor Day. A bunch of yoga teachers were sitting around a table one night talking about the plastic in the oceans and decided to put the idea out there and see what happens. The studio owner, Amy Spicer, a woman who walks her talk, offered two levels of incentives (one for those who complete the challenge and one for those who give it a really good effort) and people flocked to the desk to sign the agreement. Every time I'm in the studio, there's a line of people waiting to sign up. Now there's a public Facebook group where people can share their ideas and ask for help. I met a woman the other day who knows a lot about this stuff and I offered to put together an event to support people who are probably feeling like they are over their heads with this.
Sometimes, even if we're not ready, events conspire to give us an opportunity we might not otherwise have taken.
I went shopping today and noticed that I buy a lot of things in plastic. The awareness around this is becoming a little intimidating, but I'm trying not to think about that. Don't want to get lost in it. I'm simply putting my head down and immersing myself totally in the experience. I think we can do pretty much anything for 100 days, 64 should be even more do-able.
Ultimately, it's about choosing. And there's something freeing about making an empowered choice and living into that.
So, I'll make my own hummus and will find a butcher that will let me put what I buy into my own containers. I'll pray that I don't run out of shampoo and deodorant and laundry detergent and dish washing liquid for the next two months. I won't buy berries but I will buy peaches. I'll cut up my own watermelon. I'll move through my days with more awareness. I'll notice how convenience is one of the biggest temptations of our times and how the oceans and land are suffering as a result. I'll learn that there are a lot of things I can live without and that I can make choices that have a positive impact. And I'll remember that I have forgotten that I have more power than I think I do to affect the big issues. That I can do more than I think I can do.
My life and my choices will be medicine for the earth.
And those five yoga classes I will be gifted as a result? I'll practice with the intention to embody wise choices going forward. That, too, will be medicine.
The Great Summer Writing Retreat of 2019 begins. One hundred days of writing unedited ideas and following a prompt to its sometimes illogical conclusion.
If you're interested in being part of the challenge, or learning more, go to www.liveyogalovelife.com for more information and to sign up. If you sign up, you'll be invited to join the FB group.
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