we have 2 hours of writing time carved out in between planned sessions today. i spent the first 1 hour responding to this morning’s e-mails (after spending 2-3 hours catching up on others last night). e-mails are a blessing and a curse. i love them – really – but i struggle with staying balanced with them. i get anxious as they are downloading and i’m supposed to be on a writing retreat – not an e-mail catch-up retreat. i have to keep reminding myself of this technicality.

i wanted to share something that happened on saturday that i’ve been mulling over. when my girlfriend woke me up after my 12 hours of slumber due to friday’s crazy travel schedule, she sung about how she just loved saturdays. that really stuck with me. saturday has been a work day for me since i added the first saturday noon class to the tranquil space schedule in 2000. just last week i gave up my saturday class after i realized the next one i’d be in town to teach was 2 months away. felt it wasn’t fair to the students to have such inconsistency.

i’ve never sung about saturdays. don’t get me wrong, i’ve always enjoyed them but they weren’t a “typical” saturday. just like i’ve been going to teach as many people are coming home from a day at the office. life as a yoga teacher is somewhat reversed with society. i’ve accepted that and so has my beau (took a few to come to terms with a working weekend/evenings). i remember when we first started dating 3.5 years ago, i was finishing my master’s in women’s studies and i felt badly that i had such limited time to spend with him before 10pm or on the weekends. thus, i invented “writing dates” so that i could work on papers and he could play on the computer but at least we’d be together. you kinda have to be creative when you have a different lifestyle.

however, i’m excited to begin to think of saturdays as my girlfriend did – filled with freedom, promise, bookstore browsing, maybe even an art gallery (it’s been way too long), and traveling for pleasure. life has been very one-focused since tranquil space began in 1999 and i’m hopeful that as life continues to play out, there will be more open spaces. i love my baby, but i’m hopeful that my baby will continue to grow into a self-sufficient pre-teen or teenager that continues to spread tranquility with less hand holding.

i look forward to singing about saturdays.