FIVE DOLLAR TREASURE

H & I were making the rounds last week, shopping & purchasing supplies for our mini glamping trip & my upcoming trip to California.

He relentlessly pelted me with entreaties for treats & toys. Whew, he knows how to push my buttons & wait for the right opportunity. I obviously don’t want to get in the habit of always getting him something every time we go to the store. When does a toy or a treat not become special anymore?

Geez, but I get tired of saying no. So we’re at Target, the last stop of our errand running. I’ve held fast, & no extra trinkets have been purchased. We are at the area of the store in between the clothes & the toys. There before me is a rack of cheapie type of toys. The kind of toys that always seem a little disastrous, they never last very long.

There before me was a set of sand shaped jewels. My mind on our planned purchases & trips, I just glanced at the picture. Only $5 & there were a bunch of little jewels & rocks buried inside. Perhaps this would occupy him while I packed! Into the cart it went.

Nope. He needed my help to dig those tiny little buggars, er I mean ONE bugger out. There was only one rock! Shaped like a sugar cube of all things. Wtf? Did I just pay $5 for a brown cube shaped rock!? I was annoyed, but I didn’t pay enough attention to the package. It advertised for just 1 treasure to be dug from the inside.

Off he happily ran, clutching this $5 sugar cube rock. He held it the rest of the day & all the way to bedtime.

Motherhood is a lot like that. You plan, you expect, you scheme, but things often turn out much differently than what you plan for. You say no. You say yes. The unexpected happens. There’s no telling what will happen.

In AA they say, “Expectations are resentments waiting to happen.” I agree with this mostly, but I also think, damn am I allowed to dream up some expectations now & again?

I think I am as long as I can remember that just like that geniously marketed sand covered rock, things might now always be what they seem. My perception isn’t always the best one. I have to remind myself of this & defer to my Higher Power. Easier said than done, but there lies the path of least resistance.

I dropped H off yesterday with his grandparents. I’m at the airport now waiting for a flight to Long Beach, CA. I’m staying. For 9 days. I don’t know what to do with myself already. I see little kids all over & I miss him. I’m also deeply grateful for some alone time. It will be good to have a break from teaching too & take some yoga classes out there.

Wishing all of you out there a strange 5 dollar treasure in whatever form it takes.

~Namaste

Published by Liz Brower

I've practiced yoga since 2006, I stumbled into a class at my local gym. I didn't really "get" yoga, I wanted to do all of the poses to the max, I didn't focus on breathing, and I was very competitive. A year later I quit smoking and my mom purchased a three month unlimited to a local studio. I fell in love with yoga! Plus the metaphor was strong, my lungs began to repair, I could take really deep inhales without coughing! I later began to go to a free outdoor yoga classes in downtown Long Beach, CA that was also affiliated with a donation based studio. Yoga was fun, affordable, accessible, and outside! I loved it. I started practicing at home by myself. I started meditating. Right after I found the classes at the gym stopped drinking alchohol. My sobriety and yoga have intertwined ever since. They compliment each other amazingly and I am so grateful for them both. I stopped practicing yoga after getting pregnant and being caught up with the taking care of a newborn in 2013/2014. When he was 9 months old I realized that I really wanted to redirect myself back to yoga. I also had the seed planted in my mind while driving home from Christmas break, why don't you go do a yoga teacher training?! I started practicing yoga at a local studio and began scouring the internet for a teacher training program. I found Three Sisters Yoga, a lovely program, based out of NY & PDX. I was more than motivated to teach, I started teaching some free yoga in the summer of 2015 at a local park. I continued after that with an internship at the same studio I had signed back up with at the beginning of the year. I quit my day job. I hit the pavement, scouring for yoga gigs that would hire a newbie. I found a job and began to teach! Now I am navigating the great balance of being a single mom, a yoga teacher, and doing my best to trust my higher power with my future. I love to teach and practice vinyasa, but also know what it's like to be drawn to slower types of yoga due to injury or body type. I feel a special affinity for yoga new comers and like to teach practice at all different levels. Thank you for taking time to read a little more about me and I wish all of you the best in your own individual yoga practice. ~Namaste! View more posts