Cruise Control

We've been here in Minneapolis for nearly two weeks, and it has (predictably) gone by quickly. We are still learning how to navigate around the city and the surrounding areas (where ice rinks and Joanne Fabric stores often, though not always, are). But the layout of things is generally starting to make a bit more sense (famous last words!). 

Today for me was a day about plowing through the painful process of creating an almost-new course. It means reading things (which I love) and assessing their value for a class of undergraduates (which I love not quite as much), in this case for a Junior Seminar. I'm excited about teaching the class, and it has been fun trying to get creative about the approach, but I am also teaching a subject that is in part very new to me, so some of what I'm doing is a bit of a crap shoot (a little bit like my life, and my driving, now that I think about it!). These last few days have been an exercise in settling into a rhythm of academic work and skate mom work, of inner work and of house work.

Today Camryn and I went food shopping at a coop not too far from one of the rinks where she skates. It's called "The Wedge" (though I don't know why) and we have fallen in love with shopping there, though it can be even more expensive in some cases than Whole Foods. But it has a lot of local produce, etc. And it also has some really good vegan scones and cookies (that have no refined sugars in them) that my daughter will eat. Also some great granola. And every time we walk in there I have a visceral response--in the best way--to the the smell of the place; it smells sweet, spicy, like fresh vegetables, and baked goods--just like the food coop I worked in back in the (gulp) '70s. Yes I'm old enough not only to be your mother, but also your grandmother (but if that were the case your mother would have to read this to you).

The shopping was a success. When we got home we rested from our outing (and my daughter's three hours of skating) a bit, and then rode our bikes over to the YWCA for the "Core Ignition" class followed by a Vinyassa yoga class--just in front of a big storm (that had passed largely by the time we finished our classes). Both of these classes were taught by Ben, a very fit and handsome young man. The classes were a study in contrasts, or rather the teacher of the classes was a study in contrasts. The "Core Ignition" class just about killed us in its intense focus on our, yes, core! And Ben had us really moving and singing with the loud music and shouting encouraging words while singing along (really--while doing those crazy leg lift thingys that just about took me down?). When we had just about had it, it was time for the yoga class. His voice became sweet and low, and smooth and slow--like honey. With every direction, "exhale, downward facing dog" it felt as if he was caressing us into some fantastic position. And he had a way of making the positions we moved through feel nearly transcendent. And yet, as he was moving us through the various poses--"hold that plank, now s-l-o-w-l-y down to chataranga"--we realized we were in another set of intense moves. What an experience, though, to feel simultaneously at peace and energized, calmed and transformed by the practice. It felt like, for a moment at least, we had found some peace in our routine. 

As we hopped on our bikes there were just a few raindrops beginning to fall again. The air had cooled perceptibly. We cruised leisurely down the street towards our apartment, a new sense of ease between, and in, us.