A Simple Life

This past weekend was filled with spiritual-physical goodness.  Here are the highlights:

• I took an hour and a half yoga class on Friday night, which left me a bit sore and tired the next day.  
• Saturday morning I took my normal tai chi class and then a 4-hour tai chi saber workshop.  Tai chi is a gentle art but when done for 5 hours it can be quite exhausting.  I learned a lot in the workshop and I'm looking forward to the next one.  
• Sunday morning I drove to a nearby city for a 2-hour chi gung class.  There is a group of people in this city who collect money to pay an 81 year old chi gung master to come and teach them one day a month.  The event takes place in the basement of a group member's house.  The class was amazing and I left feeling wonderful.  The chi gung master lectures (with the help of a translator) at the beginning of the class and then drops tidbits throughout the workout.  His lecture was mostly focused on living a simple life.

This week I am spending a lot of time as a doula.  I have a young woman who is past her due date and showing early signs of labor.  We spent some time at the hospital late last night/early this morning but they eventually sent her home.  This can be nerve-wracking, especially for young women/girls, and I think my services are well utilized.  If she doesn't go into labor on her own she will be induced on Saturday but with all that is going on I'm betting I'll be busy tonight or tomorrow morning.   I also have two doula-related meetings today: one with an established client and one with a prospective client.  (The term client seems wrong to me as I'm not doing this for pay/business but I haven't figured out a better term yet). 

Last week I started obsessing over the thought of moving.  Although I blogged that I wasn't going to move anytime soon, I couldn't get the desire out of my head.  I sent b to look at a possible rental but it was not a good match for us.  I also started riding my bike past houses that were listed for sale and would, conceivably, be in our price range.  I searched the internet for sales and rentals in my neighborhood for several days.  b and I talked about where we were and what we needed.  I started looking into credit reports and mortgages.  All of this always took me back to the same conclusion.  We're not ready to move and although we could pull it off, it would add financial and personal stress.

I don't think I live the simple life that the chi gung master was talking about but my life is much simpler now that it has ever been before.  I have a tendency, when things are going smoothly, to look for the "next adventure:" to take on a new project.  I handle stress well and so I never really thought about the long term consequences of making my life busy and hectic.  I'm beginning to see, however, the benefits of keeping things in the manageable range.

Right now my life consists of: being a mom, a wife, a teacher, a mentor, a researcher, a writer, a doula.  I practice yoga and tai chi and ride my bike. I try to hike and camp and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible.  I take pictures of my world on a daily basis and read as much as I can whenever I can.  It is not exactly a simple life but it's a manageable one.

Here's a mosaic of my life in May: