Spring is here…maybe…

Ahhh, spring!  The snow is melting, the birds are singing, the sun is shining, spring is definitely here…well maybe.  I live in Ottawa and spring can be fickle, especially in the beginning it plays with our mind a little bit.  You smell it in the air and the next morning there is a minus 15 wind chill, you put your winter boots away and it snows.  You finally believe it’s really here and then this happens…

Spring is here 1

*always possible first day of spring in Ottawa

Spring is persistent though, insistent.  It just keeps starting until it arrives for good.  There are many great lessons from spring, but one of my favorite might be to just keep trying until you get it.  I learned to drive many years ago on an old standard truck, and on one of my first times out, I had to stop on a hill.  If you have ever learned to drive standard you know this feeling.  Well, my father and I sat there for over 45 minutes while I tried to get over that hill, past that stop sign.  Every time I stalled, my father would patiently tell me to “start’er her up (we’re from the Valley), try again”.  There were a lot of tears on my side, a lot of patience on his, but I just kept trying and eventually I got over that hill.  The life lesson from that moment didn’t come to me though until I had spent some time on the yoga mat.

Spring is here 2

*I know it doesn’t look like much of an incline, but trust me.

Do you make a lot of resolutions? I do, usually the standard ones, to eat better; sleep more; drink less coffee; etc. I make them often, because well, I break them often.  I used to get really discouraged when life would get in the way and I would fall off whatever wagon I had been riding that week.

Spring is here 3

*Here we go again.

Recently though, I remembered that spring/standard truck yogic life lesson.  Just start again.  Yoga is all about the fresh starts.  You get a fresh start every time you unroll your mat, it’s a new practice.  You get a new beginning with every pose.  And even if you fall out of a pose, you aren’t asked to leave the class and quit, no, you are reminded to shake it off and try again.

Even every inhale and exhale is a new breath and a new beginning.  As you know there are many things I love about yoga, but this one, just begin again, is a good one.  Like yoga, in life we don’t need to wait for New Year’s, spring or Monday morning, although honestly most of my resolutions are easier to keep when it’s not minus 30 and dark at 4:30 p.m. Whatever your resolution was, is and if it hasn’t worked out the way you thought, just shake it off, and start again.  Spring did, and now look where we are.

Spring is here 4

*Sky’s the limit!

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