Small victories

Today I am thankful for small victories. Perhaps that's not exactly the best way to phrase that, but it seems like a succinct and generally useful phrase, so I'm going with it. Sorry.

It's very easy to take for granted the little things. It's also amazing how something small can make a big impact. I was so taken aback today by something that happened at work. A lady that comes into the yoga studio pretty regularly had come in Friday with her children, unaware that we had cancelled childcare for the day. She was visibly upset when she found out that we didn't have childcare and so I offered to watch them while I worked so that she could take class. It didn't seem like a big deal and I like kids so, to me, it was really no problem. We sat on the floor and drew pictures and giggled and had fun in our own little world.

Today, she came to take class and handed me a card. It expressed how grateful she was for me to have been willing to watch her children so that she could take class. She has had a lot going on lately and said her practice has been sporadic and she really needed to take class that day and it meant a lot to her for me to agree to watch her kids. It really touched me and reminded me that I may not be a traveling mercenary or some kind of amazing philanthropist, but I can help people and touch their lives in some way, no matter how small the gesture. It was an amazing moment of awakening. We can give someone a gift simply by being in the right place at the right time. We can give someone a gift simply by being. It's the small victories that lead to big changes and learning that lesson today was a small victory but it's giving me an opening to make bigger efforts to bring smiles to peoples' faces.

I am thankful for today. I am thankful for sweet little boys who kept my drawings because they had fun playing on the floor of the yoga studio. I am thankful for life lessons. And I am thankful that each sun rise gives me an opportunity to grow.

I love you.

xoxo,

Hayley

Love and marriage and Wade and peace

The last few days have been amazing, in a number of ways both good and thought-provoking. Let's start by talking about Katie and Gordon getting married (!). Katie and Gordon were married yesterday in a beautiful service at St. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga. It was followed by a fun reception at the Grandview and a late-night snack for me at the Terminal with Pamela, Robyn and Josh, her boy. It was such a special and weird time for me. I am so incredibly thrilled for Katie and Gordon. They are beautiful people that I adore and I am so excited that they have committed to be with one another forever. It's amazing. I think it's so beautiful and extraordinary and at the same time, terrifying. They are definitely different people than me. I am sort of freaking out about having married friends. I don't feel like I'm old enough for that. I also had the striking sense of being left behind while at the wedding. Not that I didn't enjoy myself. It was fun and I loved all of Katie and Gordon's friends but I had the distinct awareness that I was one of the very few single people there. I sort of feel like I'm behind in some way. It's a little bit scary. But, then, I think to myself that my path doesn't include another person at this point in my life and theirs do. It's just a different way of living. I have to just keep reminding myself that right relationships come with time and that I move at my own pace and live my life with my heart open and that's ok.

Second of all, I have to talk about Wade Morrissette. Wade came to teach at NSY on Thursday and I have never been so inspired. Wade is incredible and he really filled my heart. I love him and am incredibly grateful for that. I also had the pleasure of getting to spend two hours in a car with him driving to Nashville and he is hilarious, totally down-to-earth and unpretentious. He is someone that I absolutely admire and will seek out for inspiration and influence from now on. I am so lucky to have gotten to meet him. I have so many more things to say but I'll have to edit later because I am literally falling asleep. :p

I love you all and I'm grateful for you.

xoxo,

Hayley