I'm back!

Hello again!  I'm back from an almost month long hiatus, and it feels like it's been years - in the best possible way, of course.

The wedding was everything I hoped it would be and more.  It's sometimes dangerous to use the word perfect, but it truly was perfect.  Marc and I are incredibly,  incredibly lucky to have such amazing family and friends support us and share their love (and amazing dance moves) on our wedding day.  One of the best elements (and it's a yogic one!) of the wedding day, from start to finish, was how absolutely perfectly present I felt the entire day.  I truly was enjoying every moment.  I didn't feel nervous or anxious, and although I was excited, I wasn't counting down the minutes until 4:00 (ceremony time).  I enjoyed everything from time with my girlfriends in the morning, to getting my hair and makeup done, to traveling with my family to the venue and all the time we spent together leading up to the big moment.  I remember vividly when my friend Caroline was working on my makeup (and man, did she do a genius job - I cried the whole ceremony and you couldn't even tell afterward) and I felt so at peace and so happy, yet my heart rate started to quicken rapidly.  My body knew to be excited and nervous, but I just felt so mentally and emotionally at peace and happy.  It was a really crazy separation of the emotional and the physical.

The time after the wedding and the post-wedding barbecue - our 'mini-moon' - was perfect as well.  We stayed at the Colby Hill Inn after finding a deal they offered through Groupon and are so madly in love.  Whenever we have the time and the money to go back, we are definitely going back.  Our current goal is to find a time once a year to go up - fingers crossed that we can make it happen.  We absolutely can't recommend it highly enough.  The tiny town, the nature, the beautiful rooms, the unbelievable food, the incredibly kind and lovely staff...it was the perfect way to decompress, relax, and recover after a whilrwind weekend (and week!  and year!).

Being back home and being married feels amazing.  There's been an incredible sense of a sigh of relief that the planning is over.  We're nostalgic for the day itself (and probably always will be), but man how I don't miss the planning!  Not one little bit.  First of all, there are still things to do - thank you notes to write, steps to take to make the name change legal, etc.  And of course, when you think about it, there will never not be a to do list!  It feels like there's so much more space, time, and breathing room in our lives right now.  You might say we're in a honeymoon phase of not having to plan a wedding!

I wouldn't be me without a big event to look forward to and prepare for, though, so I'm diving right in to training for my second half marathon.  The Brooklyn Half Marathon, taking us from Grand Army Plaza to Coney Island, is May 18th, an itty bitty 7 weeks away.  Ack!  Last time I had my big sister to hold my hand and train with me (even if we were largely long distance) and this time it's just going to be me out there on the course.  And lord help me, I haven't even checked to see how hilly it is.  Myrtle Beach was flat as flat can be, which makes things miles easier.

This week feels very much about slowly dipping back into normal life.  Things aren't quite back to routine yet - some of my children's classes are still on hiatus for Passover, we have the crazy and fun Yoga Journal Conference this weekend, and this weekend we had my wonderful best friend from England staying with us which felt like a fun prolonging of the party.  So things are still in a bit of a transition mode, it feels like.  But we are back.  And perhaps most importantly, I threw down my yoga mat and practiced a 20 minute sadhana today for the first time in...I'm afraid to even calculate how long it's been.  Months at least.

For ten minutes, I practiced slow, gentle asana.  For the following ten, I sat in a supported virasana pose with a block between my feet to lift my seat (which makes it much easier to have good posture) and used a meditation technique based in pranayama (control of the breath).  I counted my inhalation for a count of 4, the exhalation for a count of 6.  Extending the exhale (a practice called langhana in Sanskrit) is a very calming practice.  It's been absolutely ages since I sat on my own and was able to actually keep my mind focused and stay present, and it felt amazing.  Getting back to running, getting back to Refine classes, and oh that first yoga class back - it feels so wonderful to get the chance to reconnect with my body after two weeks of giving it a break.

I look forward to writing again next week, now that we're home sweet home.  Happy April!