Stuck in the Middle with You

I just returned home from Tampa/St. Pete in Florida where to go anywhere you have to cross a bridge or causeway. When we arrived in Tampa last Sunday it was during a torrential downpour. I could not make the windshield wipers of the rental car go any faster. We were on a causeway over the ocean for about 20 miles. I am in a car that I have never driven before, heading down a road I am not familiar with, the ocean cresting on both sides, and weather that was anything but what sunny Florida advertises. On a bridge you cannot turn around, and going further forward is unknown and, in this case, terrifying.

A bridge is defined a structure carrying a road, path, railroad across water, ravine, road, railroad, or other obstacle. It can also can be defined as something that is intended to reconcile or form a connection between two things.

It feels to me we are stuck on the bridge between our pre-Covid and our post-Covid lives. Many our vaccinated, or are halfway there, and some portion of our previous selves is being reinstated. But it seems like we are not 100% sure of what awaits us on the other side. Now that we are on the bridge, we actually really liked where we were and are facing the reality that we cannot turn around and go back.

I have run out of things on Netflix to binge. And I am looking forward to......what? The obvious: I look forward to spending time with my extended family and friends. I look forward to offering yoga in person. Traveling was a dream. But I loved not being in my car all the time. I loved having tons of quality time with my immediate family and my dogs. I loved not having plans.

This is like going over the Skyway in Chicago, the big red steel bridge that overlooks the river and the steel mills, seeing the skyscrapers of the city in your sights. Just as you crest over the bridge traffic slows and then, boom, all red taillights and dead stop traffic in front of you. Only thing that could make it worse is you have to pee and you have a cranky toddler in the car. You cannot turn around and going forward is complicated and uncomfortable.

One of the cues I use often in teaching yoga is "trust going forward". Imagine you are in a high lunge (one leg forward and bent at the knee and the back leg straight) and I ask you to reach your arms and your head forward and launch your back leg off the earth...trust going forward.

Things may be clunky and we will all decide what we take across the bridge. Some of us might not recognize one another when we all get there.

With the studio open, I am waiting for you on the other side. When you are ready, I look forward to seeing you in real live person. Hugs are coming.

xoxo

JK