TheBanyanTree: Ice Breakers

[Margaret R. Kramer]

On the work front our release will go into production on Saturday.  Testers
(not me) will go into the office tomorrow and test all day to see if it’s
OK.  Hopefully, there won’t be much clean-up for us to do next week.

I didn’t know much about the application while working on this first release
and I still don’t, but I’m more knowledgeable now than I was before.  Most
of my co-workers have worked with this application for several years and I
keep telling myself I’m not born with this knowledge and they understand
that, but I wish I could learn quicker than I do.

We started working on the next release which is to go into production in
June.  I have two areas that I’m responsible for this time, so that keeps me
challenged.

I do the Woody Allen thing and just show up every day.  Isn’t that 80% of
success anyway?

I started a gentle yoga class four weeks ago.  I’ve taken yoga several times
in the past and tried to do it at home, but I’ve never been consistent at
it.  I’m getting so stiff in my old age, that I wanted to get back into yoga
again.

My club has yoga, but the classes are crowded and I don’t think I would get
the personal attention I need.  And none the times worked for me.

I saw an ad in our neighborhood newspaper about a yoga institute.  It
offered a gentle yoga class for only $75 for eight weeks at a good time for
me.  I signed up and haven’t looked back.

The class has rotating teachers, all good ones, plus the maximum class size
so far has been four people.  How cool is that?  It’s so quiet and simple
and stimulating, I just love it.

I can tell the difference in my body just after four weeks.  My legs feel
less like jell-o when I use them a lot.  I’m just a tad more flexible, not a
pretzel like Ray was, but a little looser.

I use the breathing techniques when I’m stressed.  I can tell my attitude
towards life is a little more relaxed.

Even gentle yoga isn’t gentle.  It’s hard work.  I stretch my body from far
to near.  Every muscle in my body is engaged and then relaxed.  We engage in
life and then relax.  Yoga follows that flow, I think.

I’ve used yoga stretches in my workouts for years, but now I’m enhancing
them with my yoga class.

Signing up for this yoga class has been one of those things in my life
that’s kind of like a turning point.  I felt the same way when I signed up
for the gym and I’ve gone to the gym for almost 10 years now.

Easter is coming up and I’ve been thinking about Ray again.  It’s funny how
a small incident like having dinner in a fast food place the other night can
bring on memories so strong that they’re almost unbearable.

I haven’t had Easter with Ray for four years.  This will be the third Easter
he has been gone.   And in 2007, he was in the hospital with colitis.  I
don’t think he had turned the corner yet on that Easter Sunday in 2007.  He
was in pretty bad shape.  They took him off of all food and had him on IVs
to get his digestive system to settle down.  We all went to see him.  I was
worried that the boys would get a little freaked out, he was so thin and out
of it, but they handled it OK.

Our last traditional Easter together was in 2006 and it was during the first
week in this house.  We had unpacked everything, so our home was in good
shape to have dinner.  I remember that Easter in 2006 was warm and nice and
sunny and joyful and celebratory.  We just loved our new house and Ray was
so proud of it.

I took my usual Saturday walk around Como Lake this afternoon.  Most of the
ice is out, except for a bit in the north part of the lake.

Birds were everywhere.  The ducks, geese, and seagulls are back.  I saw
several muskrats swimming in the lake.  There were redwing blackbirds,
robins, and grackles singing their hearts out.  It was like nature just
exploded in the past couple of weeks.

Just like with our bodies and our lives, the earth goes dormant, too, and
then begins the cycle of rejuvenation.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com
www.polarispublications.com
www.linkedin.com/in/margaretkramer

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with
freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a
poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.  
-Colette