Last week I cleaned the rain gutters around our house.
Wanted to get that done before the cold and snow hit.
We’ve been renting out our house for a few years and you know how it is, renters rarely take the extra mile to do things like cleaning out the rain gutters so as you might imagine, I had my work cut out for me.
In fact, as I sat perched on the edge of the roof, garden trowel in hand, continually repeating to my 8-year-old my firm decision NOT to let him come up to the roof with me, I began clearing the metric ton of gunk in there and saw that the bottom-most layers had already mulched and turned into dark, rich soil.
As I scooped the thick, rich gunk out of the gutters, I simply turned my wrist and allowed the leaves and compost to drop directly into the garden beds below careful not to let any of the nutrient-rich sludge drop onto my 8-year-old who was still standing at the base of the ladder, complaining about not being allowed to come up to the roof.
Sorry buddy.
Though the analogy is perhaps over obvious, I’m nonetheless going to offer it: What dies and drifts away this year becomes the compost to usher in next year’s spring blossoms, next year’s harvest.
For our family, these past few weeks have been a tumult of goodbyes, hellos, and changes.
In last week’s email, I quoted David Ignatow’s poem, “Three In Transition” which says:
I wish I understood the beauty
in leaves falling. To whom
are we beautiful
as we go?
My prayer is that I can learn to see the beauty of all these changes in my life and see how that rich compost is sure to nourish what’s to come.
May we all learn to see the beauty in this wild dance of life, especially in times of change, death, and decay.
Let’s practice making sense of the compost of life to fertilize what’s to come.
If you’re near Salt Lake City, please join me for my first Restore Yoga + Yoga Nidra Workshop. I’ll be offering these workshops on the first Sunday of every month from 12–2 pm MT at Mosaic Yoga, 1991 S. 1100 E. in Salt Lake City, Utah.
These will be live and in-person. You can expect 2 hours of luxurious resting poses, gentle mobilization, poetry, live music, and ending with a decadent Yoga Nidra (guided meditation). My aim is to help you feel so right in your soul, so relaxed in your mind and body, that you’ll be calling an Uber to get home because nobody should drive after experiencing this much bliss and chill.
These workshops will be by donation.
Other Studio Classes
Yoga for Stiffer Bodies
Saturdays 7:30–8:30 am
Mosaic Yoga 1991 S. 1100 E. SLC, UT
By donation
Vinyasa Flow
Mondays 12–1 pm (starts NEXT Monday)
Mosaic Yoga 1991 S. 1100 E. SLC, UT
By donation
