{"id":538,"date":"2011-03-27T19:18:24","date_gmt":"2011-03-27T23:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katrinakenison.com\/?p=538"},"modified":"2011-03-27T19:18:24","modified_gmt":"2011-03-27T23:18:24","slug":"a-small-gift-from-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/a-small-gift-from-the-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"A small gift from the sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s a long way — in both miles and mindset — from the silent morning sadhana at Kripalu to my parents\u2019 house in Florida, where my family convenes each March for our sons\u2019 spring break.\u00a0 By the time I arrived last Saturday night, fresh from my month of yoga immersion, Steve and Jack were already here and in full vacation mode — tennis, hot tub, read, swim, more tennis.\u00a0 Henry\u2019s plane landed an hour after mine, and then, for a couple of perfect, too-short days, we were all here, making meals, reading our books, playing Scrabble, hanging out with my mom and dad, and catching up in person for the first time since early February.<\/p>\n

As usual, we found ourselves crowded into a booth at Chili\u2019s.\u00a0 Henry ordered a (legal) Margarita; the kids (I still call them that), in deference to me, agreed to vegetarian nachos; and we began to wax nostalgic, recalling the days when the annual visit with the grandparents also included Steve\u2019s folks, as well as stops at every mom-and-pop variety store (in search of the newest packs of baseball cards), shell collecting at the beach, Little Rascals video marathons, mini-golf, and Peanut Buster Parfaits at the DQ.\u00a0 The memories gave rise to lots of laughs, and I said something about how great it felt, how special it was, to have us all gathered here together. The boys reminded me that I say that exact same thing every single time we are<\/em> together.\u00a0 I suppose I do.\u00a0 These days, when the four of us actually land in the same place at the same time it does feel like an occasion — always too short, always bittersweet, always special.<\/p>\n

Monday we drove Jack across the state to meet up with his school tennis team for a bit of pre-season training, and this morning we dropped Henry off at the airport at 6:30 am for his flight back to college.\u00a0 It was still dark when we pulled up to the curb, the remnant half of the fattest, closest moon on record lingering in the sky.\u00a0 I watched my older son push through the revolving door and disappear into the bright terminal and felt a similar revolving effect in my own stomach, as the easy togetherness of these last few days was suddenly displaced by a wave of sadness.\u00a0 It still gets me, just how alone alone feels every time we say good-bye to our sons.<\/p>\n

With one more day here before our own flight home, Steve and I drove down the empty highway and up and over the long bridge to Sanibel, where we used to spend at least part of each winter vacation when our boys were little.\u00a0 It\u2019s been years since we\u2019ve been back, but as we walked along the familiar stretch of beach and watched a new generation of young sand-castle-builders hard at work, every step seemed to give rise to a memory.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just spent a month practicing being fully present, and yet strolling along the water\u2019s edge this morning I seemed utterly incapable of simply being in the moment.\u00a0 Sanderlings scurried along at our feet.\u00a0 The sun rose higher in the sky, the water was perfect, the beach filling with families and sunbathers and shell collectors, all intent on milking their varied pleasures from the day.<\/p>\n

And I found myself fighting back tears, trying way too hard to savor a lovely walk with my husband while, at the same time, overcome with a swirl of emotions — missing my sons, missing the life we used to lead together, missing their vanished childhoods and our own younger, more innocent parenting selves.\u00a0 How clearly I remember every bathing suit they ever owned; the big, cheap beach towels with hoods in the corners that could completely envelop a small, shivering boy; the bright, indestructible toys we stored at my mom\u2019s house and hauled out year after year; the small, irresistible\u00a0 plastic shark Jack once \u201cborrowed\u201d from another little kid and failed to return, and his tearful confession at the end of the day when his guilty conscience got the better of him; the smell of suntan lotion slathered onto a small bony back; the taste of gritty cheese crackers and warm iced tea; the scrim of sand in the rental car; the bags of prized shells ripening and stinking in the back seat as we headed back down the causeway, windows open wide. . . .<\/p>\n

Steve and I walked side by side, mostly in silence, for a mile or so, waves lapping at our feet, and then we turned around and made our way back.\u00a0 I stooped and picked up a pale gray piece of a shell, broken, unidentifiable, but worn smooth as satin to the touch.\u00a0 Somehow it seemed like the right one to slip into my pocket at the end of this less-than-wonderful morning, a battered fragment, far from perfect, yet weathered and beautiful in its own right.<\/p>\n

There is an abbreviation known to everyone at Kripalu:\u00a0 BRFWA.\u00a0 It stands for Breathe. Relax. Feel. Watch. Allow.\u00a0 In yoga class, this is a fine way to move into and out of poses, slowly and with awareness and compassion.\u00a0 I think it is probably a pretty effective strategy for negotiating the inevitable ups and downs of everyday life as well.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been worried about how I can possibly incorporate all the learning of the last month back into my \u201creal\u201d life, how I can assimilate some of the changes I cultivated in class and turn them into new ways of being, even when I\u2019m not on a yoga mat.\u00a0 It was so easy to stay calm and centered while ensconced in \u201cthe bubble\u201d of Kripalu, where all I had to do was show up and be myself in a room full of like-minded, equally dedicated souls.\u00a0 But it\u2019s so much more challenging to bring my \u201cyoga self\u201d back home and layer her onto my \u201cmom self,\u201d that self who seems at times to be comprised of equal parts of nostalgia for what\u2019s over, worry about what might yet come to be, and yearning for the physical presence of grown children whose lives have (quite rightly) carried them away from home.<\/p>\n

Breathe. Relax. Feel. Watch. Allow.\u00a0 I wish I\u2019d remembered these simple words at the beach this morning.\u00a0 They might have given me a little more room to simply experience all my swirling feelings, without so much recrimination and self-judgment.\u00a0 I might have allowed the sweet memories to wash through me rather than wishing for what can\u2019t be.\u00a0 I might have \u00a0allowed my tears to fall and then I might have taken a few deep breaths and allowed the sea air to dry my cheeks.\u00a0 I might have held my husband\u2019s hand and shared my feelings with him, and \u00a0allowed him to comfort me a little, instead of trudging along in silence as I did, convinced that I should somehow be doing a \u201cbetter\u201d job of walking on the beach.<\/p>\n

So. Transformation doesn\u2019t happen overnight after all, or even in a month.\u00a0 And good-byes are always hard.\u00a0 In the meantime, though, I will remind myself:\u00a0 Breathe. Relax. Feel. Watch. Allow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a long way — in both miles and mindset — from the silent morning sadhana at Kripalu to my parents\u2019 house in Florida, where my family convenes each March for our sons\u2019 spring break.\u00a0 By the time I arrived last Saturday night, fresh from my month of yoga immersion, Steve and Jack were already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,23,27,33,35,38,39,40,8,10,43,14,16],"tags":[103,256,263,324,447,479],"class_list":{"0":"post-538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-acceptance","8":"category-change","9":"category-compassion","10":"category-family-life","11":"category-impermanence-soul-work","12":"category-letting-go","13":"category-marriage","14":"category-midlife","15":"category-mindfulness","16":"category-parenting","17":"category-parenting-teens","18":"category-practice","19":"category-soul-work","20":"category-yoga","21":"tag-brfwa","22":"tag-kripalu","23":"tag-letting-go-2","24":"tag-parenting-2","25":"tag-transformation","26":"tag-yoga-2","27":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/600x600.png?fit=600%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}