Overwhelming Gratitude

I wanted to take a moment and give my utmost gratitude to lululemon athletica.  The company was woven in and out of my blogging experience like a beautiful quilt.  Not only were they with me as my part-time employer, but the employees encouraged me daily and the community had become my support group.  Although I am no longer with the company, they continue to show love and support for my personal goals.  Ultimate definition of a dream company.  All of this reiterates my gratitude for what lululemon has helped me achieve and my sadness to leave such a meaningful chapter in my life behind.

Five million thanks for everything you have helped me create and for all of the undiscovered goals, ideas and relationships that lululemon will continue to cultivate in other individuals lives.   Hats off to you.  Humbled and wordlessly grateful.

 *Click the picture to see the blog that inspired my endless blabbering!

My New Aum

Lately I have been waiting to post until I had an epic workout to blog about.  Unfortunately, if I keep waiting it will be awhile.  It’s not that I have not been working out, I have just misplaced the inspiration to write about the sweating.  Instead, I’d like to share with you something incredibly exciting and better than my monotonous runs.

My dear friend, favorite yogi and a woman with a heart so big that I think it could take over the world, Shannon Von Burns, has given me the gift of attending her Yoga Teacher Training on a scholarship.  I asked her why the heck she chose me for such an amazing gift.  Her response was, “I believe in you. Your commitment to 365 days of working out earned you this honor!”

I am blown away and completely humbled.  The generosity and confidence that she has shown in me has catapulted my own beliefs and capabilities about myself.  The next eight months of the training process is going to challenge me in ways that I never thought possible and test my physical limits in ways that the last 365 days have only dreamt of doing.  I will share this journey with you the same way that I shared the last year.

Until then, I leave you with a challenge.  How can you continue to test your physical limits every year?   My hunch is that if you’re capable of doing so, then you’ll learn more spiritually, emotionally and physically than you ever bargained for.  It’s a gift that you will be able to give yourself, time after time.  If it’s something that you’re interested in, find a way to do it and share it with the world.  Trust me, they will be grateful.

Namaste.

*The picture is courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch.

I Invite You

The Invitation 

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.  I want to know what you ache for, And if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.  I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, For your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.  I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, If you have been opened by life’s betrayals or Have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own; If you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you To the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, Be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling me is true.  I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can see beauty Even when it is not pretty every day, And if you can source your life from God’s presence.I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, And still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have, I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, Weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you came here, I want to know if you will stand in the center of the Fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.  I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away,I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, And if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

– Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder.