-Happy YOU Year-

Good Morning Tribe! I hope that this reaches you well. As I sit here writing this with my coffee watching the rain fall, I can’t help but think of how close we are to being back together. In just a few days, the doors open, the lights go on, the classes are full, the music is up, and for those 45 minute increments of us taking a class, all is well in the world. We are close people!! It is going to happen and when it does, it will be something special. Hold onto that hope and know, we will be together again very soon. I have been holding off writing a blog for the past couple weeks. Not only was it a busy time with the holidays and the general stress of virtual teaching, but I wanted to save this blog for this moment. New Years Eve. Of 2020. It seems like today is mile 25 in this marathon of a year we are running. Which, it very well is. We are so close. But, we have to be careful with how we think about what tomorrow means.

This year. How do we even talk about it? I mean I don't think any one person could have seen this coming. In one day, our lives were turned upside down outside of our control. Our homes suddenly became our workplaces, schools, gyms, date nights, music lessons, sports practices, and so much more. We had to figure it out. Make it work. I remember thinking, how am I going to teach, live, work out, and not escape my 800 square foot apartment. I am sure so many of you had similar thoughts and just were unsure of how this would work. It was unexpected. It was unfair. It was frustrating. But, it was our life. We had to figure it out because time kept going. The world didn’t stop. Emails still came, school still happened, meals were still needed. We figured out how to do life in a way we never had to before. We may not have been willing at every moment, but we were flexible and got it done. That is an accomplishment in and of it self for 2020. Being flexible and rising to the challenge. Give yourself a minute right now to find some grace in just how far you have come.

If you are like me, or really like any normal human, I am sure you have been waiting for today for a while. We have found ourselves saying “I can’t wait for 2020 to be over”. I know I have said that hundreds of times. Because truly, I can’t. But as the days approached and the status of the world somewhat remained the same, I realized the toxic power of putting my happiness on a timeline. I know so many of us are hoping and praying, and have been for months, that January 1st 2021 will be the start to a new year. It will be the answer to our last nine months of prayers. It will be…better. But I sit here today asking myself, how? How can the sun set and then rise again and everything has suddenly changed? The answer is it can’t and it won’t unless we take control of the day, seize it, and make it into to something good. A day is 24 hours that will happen regardless of what you do. It is up to you to make those 24 hours worth it. Think about it. Some days people run marathons on the days you are binging Netflix. Tomorrow, we need to wake up ready to train for the marathon, because the race is not over.

Destinations, goals, timelines, are all great. They help us keep on track. They give us something to work towards. They give up hope and courage to keep going. That is good and that is healthy. Using a vacation to motivate you to get in shape. Using a timeline to find success in your career. Setting a goal to achieve certain things. These are all healthy ways of thinking. Where we run into problems is when the date we are working towards is when happiness and relief will come. A date is just a date on a calendar. Kind of like the saying a gun on a table will stay there and harm no one until someone picks it up, the same thing happens here. I want you to go into 2021 with the mindset that this year is a year you get to live in. It is a gift. It is time to make things right. To work through things. To achieve your dreams. 2021 is not happiness in and of itself. You are. You are the happiness you are looking for. It is in you, it has always been in you. maybe this year, you couldn't find it. Maybe you were tired to the bone, stressed, exhausted, angry or scared. That is okay. We still have time.

So take 2021 as the opportunity to live in the ways we can. Take it as the chance to not let time steal anymore of your happiness. Don't put a date on when things will get better, just be better each day and it will come. Remember, happiness come from within not on a shelf. The only place you can find it is within yourself. Go into 2021 with hope for a better world, strength from what we have been through, flexibility and positivity from 2020, and maybe throw the bird up for shits and gigs. But when the clock strikes midnight tonight, know that the power lies within you and not the date not the calendar. Gandhi had it right…be the change you wish to see. It starts with one step, and that step is today.

I love you all! A couple more days until we can reunite in the place that keeps us whole :) Happy YOU year!

XOXO,
​C