Happy Memorial Day!
Happy Memorial Day weekend! This weekend is the kickoff to summer and always feels super exciting! Do you remember last Memorial Day weekend at the dance studio? I remember going there a year ago today and plugging in the humidifiers and getting the equipment organized and just being so thrilled to have a big space for us to roll around in with floor to ceiling mirrors! In some ways it feels like that moment was just here and in others it feels like it was decades ago! As great as that space was, it still felt like we were visitors in someone else’s home. It wasn’t really ours, we adapted (as we do) but it always felt super temporary.
When I eventually found our current space, I had so many emotions! I can remember signing the lease thinking Memorial Day weekend is going to rock! Summer has that certain energy that makes us all buzz with delight. The hot sun, neon green leaves, pops of color, the way crisp light streams through windows, tan skin, salty air, outdoor barbecues. I mean you can’t beat it! If winter makes you want to hibernate in bed, summer makes you want to rip off all the layers and GO!
I did have such a vision for us this summer, and trust me, being in the studio alone while I taught you on a laptop was not it. If you know me, you know I love being one on top of another, sweat dripping, hearts pounding, beats pumping, moving in unison! I live for the mirror to be so steamy that we just rely on the cadence of the music to keep us in unison. The electricity that flows from one person to the next, woven through the entire studio so that we can then go out into the world as better versions of ourselves is palpable. I can physically feel it. But you know what? I just got home from teaching a zoom class to some pretty badass women and the same energy was there! It’s still there! I am reminded of that fact every single time I see you on zoom. Am I disappointed? Sure. I am disappointed about so many things most likely the same things you are: my daughter doesn’t get to have her preschool graduation, my son doesn’t get to have play dates with his friends, and as a mother these things break my heart. I miss hugging my friends, or just having people in my home for coffee. Two of my best friends are pregnant and I can’t rub their bellies. I am disappointed by what I feel like are missed memories.
But as I said in class today, and mean with every fiber of my being, we woke up today. We woke up, and we put our two feet on the floor and… WE. CAN. MOVE! Sure, it’s not the way I thought it was going to look like. I don’t think any of us could have predicted this, but listen, we can still move. And how cool that we can be together even if only virtually? It matters. Don’t forget that. It matters that we can still do this together, because the collective is where it’s at. We need each other, I need you just as much as you need me, and let’s never forget that there will ALWAYS be someone who can help you to that finish line. I came home from teaching a zoom class this morning with the same exact emotions and feelings as if you were all actually in that studio with me. Because you were with me. We are still with each other. It makes me feel higher than any drug! Like we can accomplish anything. We work hard. We fight for what we want with power, determination and grace. The control, the breath, the delicate balance of holding the body in space while we ask it to do the impossible, the nuanced movement, it’s all within you and it doesn’t matter where you unroll your mat to do it.
This time of self isolation, or pause, or quarantine or whatever you want to call it has been brutally difficult. It has also allowed me personally to take a look at my own strength and realize that I am even more resilient than I thought I was. And I really hope that you can do the same; look at what you are doing! You continue to show up: for yourself, for me, and for the group. We are a team of warriors doing the impossible. You’re doing SCULPT ELITE when your kids sleep or late at night after a long day of work. Some of you set the alarm extra early to get it in before the sun comes up. That’s not easy and it takes a lot of inner strength to make that commitment to yourself. I just finished watching The Last Dance and you all remind me of the Chicago Bulls. If you haven’t watched you should. They were so focused and so driven and just so there for each other and I feel in a lot of ways we are that strong team. So for now, we keep doing what we are doing. We keep showing up on the mat, we keep going to each other’s birthday and graduation parades, we keep checking in on each other, we keep holding ourselves accountable for our own health. Because when that studio is allowed to open, it’s going to O P E N. We are going to have a party like you’ve never seen before!
You’re all killing it and I just love you all so much.
Happy Memorial day weekend...see you beauties on zoom,
xxx