30 Long Weekends and 13,000 Miles

Yep, that's part of what it took to earn a Master of Science in Yoga Therapy over the past two years.  I'm writing this from the cafe where I first met with a friend in 2015 to inquire about what this program was all about; she had just finished up the same degree.  After I returned to Norfolk from Costa Rica at the end of 2014 I started teaching yoga here locally and other than that didn't know what else I was going to do with my life. I knew for sure I wanted to earn a master's degree, but had no idea in what that would be. Once I heard about this opportunity I knew without a doubt the path I should take. Over the course of the past two years so much has happened. 

I've found and lost love. Twice.

My daughter got married and is expecting her first baby in November. 

My son's wife is expecting her first in August. 

I went to an ashram on the beach of Paradise Island in the Bahamas for training in yoga for veterans with PTSD. 

I've moved three times

I've drank approximately 700 cups of coffee banging out grad school work at the aforementioned cafe.

I've seen roughly 75 movies in the theater (Friday afternoons are my favorite movie day because the new releases come out and the theaters are never crowded).

I went to around 20 concerts

I went to Costa Rica and broke my back jumping off a 40 foot waterfall. This has been a tough one to heal from over the past 11 months and I still wake up with pain everyday.

AARP did a video documentary on me and my journey to yoga therapy and I went to DC to be interviewed on Fox News. 

I wrote dozens of papers and would shudder to see what the combined word count is

I gave a bedside yoga therapy session to an 80 pound woman with Stage IV intestinal cancer who died two weeks later. Life is real, pain is real, the things we can do to lessen the suffering of others means more than anything else we can do

All these things

and

more...

But the biggest and best part of the past two years have been the relationships forged with the wonderful women in my grad school cohort.  The finest porcelain endures the hottest fire and we burned that shit up!  I love each and every one of these ladies (and Baby Bartley).

MUIH Master of Science in Yoga Therapy Cohort 4

So where to go from here?  Well I believe in the power of positive thinking and when we open ourselves up for opportunity the universe has a way of saying "Hey, I know you, wanna play?"  

Hey, universe, wassup?