living a life of astonishment: some appreciation for a new year

Image | Sarah Pollok

A new year carries many interpretations and symbolisms. For some of us, the eve of anew year may be daunting, lonely, unexpected; for others, a moment of celebration, triumph, connection. Maybe it’s a party of all the things, swirled into one big cocktail of surprising flavours.

For the Estuary Yoga community, 2022 has been a time of regeneration. At least from where Andrew and I stand - it has been a journey of sailing a business and (in my eyes) a spiritual family into the unpredictable waves of our post-COVID world, while also learning to navigate the changing relationship with one another. We are humbled and feel deeply supported to be still standing, for it has been a trialling time for yoga studios (and all other small businesses and collectives). The past year brought in many enquiries, discoveries, and re-discoveries. I imagine you have felt degrees of the same in your own family, work and personal endeavours.

What has come up again and again, for me, is this essence of being with. Isn’t this our practice, at its core? To be with the moment at hand, freeing ourselves of value-judgments and comparison. To be with the plot twists in the transitions between asana, between breaths, within the beautiful and awkward experiences of relating.

To be with is to show up, with a kind and courageous sense of care.

Not to idealise, but to accompany the life flowing through every tick-tock of time we have on this living breathing Earth.

As expressed by poet and soul-friend to millions, Mary Oliver:

Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

I am in deep admiration for the growing which has happened this Melbournian-weather-esque year, for you, for myself, for all of us in known and yet-to-be-revealed ways.

To the glorious Estuary Yoga team -
Thank you for your living practice of authenticity in the yogic way of life. Bella, who fell in love and took the deep dive of moving across oceans to unfold a once-unimaginable tapestry of life. Keigo, for taking the big and courageous step of beginning this path of teaching with such dedication and commitment to excellence. Dave, for your thoughtful and expansive explorations into your craft, and its philosophical roots. Kara, for fertilising and living the beautiful wisdoms of nature in your teaching and being. Caty, for the quiet endurance through surgical interventions, and the many flowers and thorns (and puns, ofc) of bone-deep recovery (literally). Caz, for bright grace and poise through the upheaval and replanting of a life. Bec, for being such a shiny example of elegant calm amidst storms in the unsteady challenges of her work, and in the yoga classroom. Andrew, for engineering such diligence and empowerment within the overwhelming demands of academia, business, teaching and life. In myself, the revealing of a stronger kindness, not as afraid to meet unknowables, and able to begin again with more grace, less attachment to perfection.

aria sleeping | dec 2022

And of course, Aria, for her embodied practice of deep rest: a lighthouse for us often-flustered humans, who need this reminder: rest, and relax, it matters. Savasana, after all, is a repose to remember: you are alive, and life is transient.

To our community -
There are so many more touching, heart-wrenching, frustrating, mysterious, uplifting stories I have been privileged to witness this year, through this community. I thank each of you for the generosity and trust you have placed in us, as well as your dedication to your evolving practice. The position of ‘leadership’ is never taken lightly, and I bow to each of you for the privilege of your care.

Even when we feel isolated, we are never alone. The yoking within our yoga practice is as much a remembering of what is already in connection within us, as it is a forging of new bonds. The revealing of how intertwined we all are, as much as the building of new relationships.

So as we begin a new calendar year, and another new day -I wonder, dear friend:

Who around you has offered encouragement, inspiration, regeneration and solace?

Who may be looking to you for your example, your lived values, your evolving way of being?

Perhaps our job, as the essayist and writer Rilke poignantly encourages, is not to live the answers, but to live our way into the questions.

These are, for me, valuable perspectives to dip back to now and then. To unstick ourselves from the loops of habit, and gain a wider, truer view. I hope they offer you the same curiosity and spaciousness, to reveal just now much connection is right here, present with us - if we are open to welcoming it in its own imperfect, impermanent and astonishingly impersonal way.

In our time of regeneration, we are planting seeds, and branching into new waters in 2023. More workshops, more deepening of yogic teachings, more integration within community. I can’t wait to share.

This new year, may you - may we - grow more courageous, more caring and awake to the life that lives through us, and through each other in this richly interdependent and unlikely life. Let’s be with, and journey together.

x lucy