2019 is ending, people. As in a decade. I could certainly fill up a whole post and then some on what the last 10 years has looked like. However, this last year was rather epic and a good one to close out the last 10 years of my life.
For those of you who are unaware, I have led a double life for quite sometime. I joke that I’m a straight and narrow living by protocols and procedures by day and a patchouli, free loving, and namaster by night. But looking back over the last 12 months I saw not only those two lives but a third emerge. I didn’t see it as I was living it but I’m now a triple lifer. For the first time I think I see these three parts as just my life and not compartments. They bleed into each other and influence the next. This year has been successes and lows as a scientist, a yogi, and as just me. As I sit and think about all I’ve done in each area I am filled with gratitude and a healthy dose of pride.
By day you can usually find me in scrubs and a face mask. This year the challenges of passing legislation doubled the size of our small but mighty section. As a group we worked fractionated in different locations, mine of which was mostly offsite while a four month remodel was under way. Training, rush cases, and learning to bend and not break was something I learned rather ungracefully along a good strong group of people. In the midst of emmense change I was somehow able to testify in the court of law three times, helped update the sexual assault evidence collection kit for Norther Nevada, present at our joint meeting in Las Vegas, work with one of my best friends and a new friend on a rewarding and exciting side research project that I hold dear to my heart for many reasons, and I was able to co-present the project at an international conference. Our little just for fun research project was featured in the New York Times as a special interest piece. I had the opportunity to help update our automation in the lab and be trained in additional robotics and new platforms that I think is just wicked cool (bc I’m a nerd like that).
While all of that was happening in my day life the Chubby yogi was happening by night. This year the Chubby Yogi featured three restaurant reviews (and has three more that never published :/ obviously I need a little work on sticking to the blogging). I started my email list and wrote “The Chubby Essentials” a 14 page welcome and thank you ebook for my followers. I co-hosted two ‘Grub Chub Namaste’ day retreats. These retreats built community through collaboration with other local vendors, teachers, and healers. The Chubby Yogi sold over 50 handmade lotion bars, my fist dive into a potential body line, and even did my first vendor show. I taught at Temple Yoga for 10 months, and as of this last semester The Chubby Yogi is now at UNR. I got to work with Hello Yoga as a brand ambassador and share that yoga is for everyone no matter your age, size, or physical abilities. I taught donation based classes with Hello Yoga and the Sheriff’s Office raising money for our local food bank. I did yoga poses this past year in Nevada, California, and Montana.
While my day life and night life have been jam packed I somehow found time to just be me. This sounds weird I know. But for so long I have identified as a scientist or a yogi. But never took that much time to just be me, until this past year. At my core I am a homebody/creative/friend/lover. And somehow this year with all that going on I found time to devot to my core self. Growing up my home was my rock. Home was everything, it was where love was, where I could be anything, and a place of stability and safety. And I guess its fitting that this year I bought my first home and feel that sense of me again. This past year Natalie and I have worked so hard on this home. Small projects like building our beds, putting floors in the yoga room, making a garden, and yard work have been so special to me. Even our big projects like our patio project with all of its headaches was so rewarding. Home has become a sanctuary again. Here we have hosted our friends and families for holidays, BBQ’s, and visits. Our home has been called home by others as we have had family live with us. I made time for ‘the girls’ (my beautiful group that keeps me sane and laughing till I cry- you know who you are), for family, for helping others in need, and for those who matter most. In dedicating time to this part of me , this year I have laughed and cried as I have celebrated weddings, child births, graduations, and engagements. One of which is my own. Dedicating time to myself to be that homebody/creative/friend/lover that I am has been so rewarding. It’s brought a sense of love and stability into my life that I am forever grateful for. Dedicating time to this part of me has brought me a love that I have never known before. While nothing is ever “perfect” the love that Natalie and I have built is pretty close. For someone who is fiercely independent loving someone and depending on them is hard for me. But Natalie makes it easy through her constant loyal support.
I feel both accomplished and exhausted as this year comes to a close. And looking back it is no wonder why. If I had to describe my last year it be would that my two feet have been rooted strong and steadfast to that part of me I neglected for so long. And it was this that kept me weathering the storm of swirling chaos that the year brought. I dont use the term chaos in a negative way, as this year was so far from that. It was joyous and messy and beautiful but chaotic nonetheless. If every year to follow is just as good you can bet I’ll be saddled up and ready for the ride!