Day 7: Sunday, June 15, 2014

Breanne and I at One Down Dog after she took my two classes

I had the pleasure of spending my Sunday morning yoga-ing and then lounging in the sun with my dear friend Breanne who was in town for a quick visit from Austin, Texas.

Breanne and I met about 6 years ago while I was working at Virgil Middle School. She initially started at Virgil teaching Math then switched content areas to English. However, our real connection came through fitness and other sorts of silly shenanigans. Breanne played soccer with me on Epic Fury, my first soccer team in Los Angeles. We had a blast together. She was refreshing, hilarious, and quirky. Breanne didn’t and now even as an Assistant Principal, still doesn’t take life too seriously. She is a free spirit with a warm heart and joy about her that makes her irresistible. What’s more is I knew Breanne during my pre-yoga days when I was bitter, angry at the world, and to put it mildly, a sour person. Yet despite this, Breanne embraced me and was a friend to me. Breanne made me feel alive and not having seen her over the past 3+ years made today special. I was excited to hug my friend, hear about her life, work, engagement and giggle about nonsense. But what I really relished was showing Breanne my work as a yoga instructor and shedding some light on the growth I have had over the past few years since finding yoga.

2008 Epic Fury Soccer

Breanne is effervescent and wistful. She is just ‘so yoga’ and always was. The problem was that when she lived here though I loved her energy and was drawn to it, I was too polluted by my own anger to allow it in to thaw my heart. Yet, despite my negativity and terrible attitude about everything, Breanne never made me feel badly about the person I was. Breanne accepted me. She didn’t try to change me or tell me what ‘I needed’. She let me exist and be me.

At some point today, I remember looking at her and wondering if perhaps she saw the yoga and light inside me the entire time. Maybe Breanne like Stargirl, one of my favorite fictional characters from Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl is tapped into something more simple and pure than the rest of us. Maybe some of us are just more accepting of what lies nestled deep within someone because I believe Breanne saw something special in me then and as we gabbed like school girls all day long, she still does.

It is amazing at how our lives seemed to simultaneously play out half-way across the country in such a parallel fashion from our fitness endeavors to veganism. I reveled in spending my time with someone whom could appreciate my growth because sometimes a little validation goes a long way. I was proud to display myself to Breanne exclaiming “Look! Look at me! I have grown!” But you know what? I wasn’t the only one who did the growing. Breanne owns a house with her fiancé. She runs a school, and is planning a wedding. I mean, we sat in my kitchen after laying in the sun at The Meadow in Silverlake noshing on fresh veggies and humus discussing weddings, venues, and dresses. WOW. Who are we? Weren’t we the girls dressed up to party and eating late-night burritos? No.

We are exactly who we are supposed to be: Here now.