A Storm's A' Comin'

I play tennis on Thursday nights, among others.  Usually I find myself harried, driving down Lake Shore Drive like a demon, late to the gym in Lincoln Park that has indoor tennis courts.

I wasn't looking for this particularly, but as I was cursing the idiot driver in front of me, going 20mph, I pulled onto LSD on this day and this view presented itself to me.  This is such a rarity to see the Drive stretch out virtually empty in front of you.  Add in the eclectic mix of clouds--some menacing, some beautiful, and a tad of blue sky in there somewhere--and it was a sight that did not literally stop me in my tracks but inspired me enough to shoot this picture "on the fly" in a couple different ways.

This really spoke to me today.  Beautiful in its disarray.  I immediately felt like this image summarized all the possibility (and also the foreboding) to come in the next months.

More on that soon.

Suffice it to say, I've decided to make some changes that I know will be challenging, that I will fight against either immediately or eventually, and that will impose themselves and their own rules on me as I make my way through.  And that's okay; in fact, that's great.  That's necessary at this point.

But this view today, presented as a gift I'm sure, reminded me that even foreboding, even challenge, even storms, even a confusion of all of them have their own beauty and space in a world that may seem overly known.

And beauty isn't always sunshine and rainbows.

Sometimes, the world needs several layers of clouds and the restlessness of a storm moving in not because it helps us appreciate the sun, but because it in and of itself is something to truly behold.

I Am a Fat Girl. And I Do Yoga.

I am a fat girl.  Always have been.  And I do yoga.  Have for awhile.  

And that's a great thing.

I also happen to be in a need of a project.  No, like a serious project.  In my life, I've completed serious intellectual projects.  Serious feats of strength.  Serious projects of risk and daring.  They have been amazing. 

But the truth is, I've been looking for two other kinds of projects that have never materialized as I would've hoped.  I want a physical challenge and I want a spiritual challenge.  Go figure, then, that I am fat AND already to yoga.

The pump is primed, as they say.

In what felt very provocative to me, I wondered one day, "I wonder if the next project should be finding some peace, clarity, love, and general warm fuzzy things in doing something good for my physical being?"

Uhhhhmmmm, yes the Universe seemed to respond almost immediately.

"But can I do both?"

It's the only way, Katie.  It's the only way. 

I've always been athletic.  I've always been overweight, more and more bogged down by the baggage that comes with that.  I've always been reflective--hyper-reflective some might say.  And I've never been able to intersect these two things with any meaning.

Maybe, health in both mind and body comes not part and parcel of each other but absolutely fused together.  Seeking contentment in both might be the only way.

Thus sprung this manifestation of that reflection.  Thus springs this particular blog.

I've always written about reflective, spiritual things, not even thinking twice that perhaps applying that same introspection into my own physical reality could really become something important.  Finally, not that long ago it seemed to gel.  I need a place and time to do that.

And the courage to just confront it.

Instead of trying to change, why not grasp this moment to transform.

It's who I am.  Now let's shine.