To some of us, the eclipse a few weeks ago was a moment of slight darkness and insane traffic on an average Monday. To some, it was a magical celestial moment that we organized our day, even our summer vacations, around. To others, it signaled a time of reset and reflection.
I saw my favorite massage therapist in the world last week. She’s one of these amazing people that drops f-bombs while aggressively rubbing essential oil into my tight shoulders and reading my masculine-feminine energy imbalance. In the past few years she’s delved into the world of the goddess and the divine feminine, which always leads to talk of energies and nature.
We touched on the eclipse and it’s potential significance. We both had similar experiences on the day of: making time to see it, but being glad we hadn’t planned a whole deal around it necessarily. (The traffic in Salem and Madras, OR at 100% totality was NO joke!)
As she dug her elbow into my glute, she told me about the other significance of the eclipse to her, and that it’s effects could last 6 months to a year. The literal blocking of the sun by the moon, the creation of darkness in the midst of light, signifies a chance to turn inward and sift through some of our own neglected, dark spaces. To get rid of things that aren’t serving us.
I’m not particularly religious or spiritual. I wouldn’t say I really stay in touch with the cosmos and it’s predictions. But I have to say the timing of the eclipse seems pretty pertinent.
Travels and feelings
I traveled home again, signaling the beginning of the end of one of the most bizarre summers ever. Caring for my father as my mother and I try to take care of each other, too. Taking some time off work and then diving back in full steam ahead. An insane travel schedule: PDX > ROC > CH > WB > Vegas > PDX > Tahoe > SF > PDX > WB > AVL > WB. All over the span of 2 and a half months.
I was at home at the beach with my family for the last three weeks, enjoying a little bit of limbo. Working but not teaching. Doing whatever I can do to help, but knowing my dad is recovering well and regaining some sense of normalcy.
A big theme of the summer is rest and self-care. Taking some time off work to go home to my family. Making sure I’m stretching and rolling after running. Giving myself permission to have quiet time and sit in the sunshine. Drinking lots of water. Spending time with loved ones. Snuggling with Tori.
I feel like I was just thinking about the summer ahead and wham! it’s pretty much fall.
After the summer that’s happened though, I’m pretty excited to get back to my routine in Portland. Back to relative normalcy and all the chaos that means for me.
New running goals
I’m training as hard as I can for my race next week. I had a couple of great weeks running in Portland before I left, and was nervous about running at the beach in the southern humidity for a few weeks. Sea level running isn’t going to be the best for getting me ready for the steep Molalla Trail series.
I’m also just nervous about running my first race in years. After two half marathons in college, and jacking up my knee, I went through a period thinking I was done with running. Thanks to my roommate in Colorado for introducing me to trail running, excellent physical therapy, meeting ultra runner extraordinaire Jamie King, getting my butt kicked in cross training HIIT & Flow classes by same Jamie King, I’m actually excited-ish to be doing this race. For the first time, I didn’t use a training plan. I just kept running, consciously increasing my distances, but at no regular interval, and made sure I stayed active and moving. I wish I could have been running on the trails for a little longer before my race, but sand and humidity made for great resistance training!
Detoxin’
I tend to live on coffee and wine, with plenty of water mixed in (don’t worry). Of course they’re my three favorite beverages, but the past week of the Sparking Detox has been great. All week I drank only Gerolsteiner’s Sparkling Mineral Water. Sparkling water is one of the little things that can literally perk me right up on a day when I just feel “meh,” which I know was happening for a lot of us lately. I crave a glass full of the bubbles with a wedge of lemon after a hot, sweaty run– so refreshing!
Fall cleaning
Before I left for home the first time in June, I took some time for a purge. I pulled everything out of my closet and drawers, dumped it all onto my living room floor (sorry, Caitlin) and weeded through everything. I attempted to be as ruthless as I can, which is really challenging for me. I tried to follow the “if you haven’t worn it in a year, get rid of it” rule. I tried recognizing my patterns: a lot of times I end up wearing the same few things because they’re my favorite. I acknowledged a lifestyle change: I have a lot of nice clothes from working in a restaurant and having to dress up every night, and that’s just not what I wear anymore.
So when I took off for 5 weeks of beach life and Vegas shenanigans, I left bags upon bags full of clothes to sell and give away upon my return. Because of course I couldn’t have handled everything with enough time before I left to get rid of it, too. Now I’m looking forward to finishing out the purge. Maybe even taking another pass through everything, and getting rid of what I don’t NEED.
What are your go-to resources for selling your awesome but unwanted gear?
The cosmos
Oh, and Mercury was in retrograde. Again. The timing of this is just crazy to me, coinciding with the eclipse, summer craziness, getting ready to leave for home again, a time of weird emotions that I couldn’t understand… Thanks, Mercury.
Now that I’m back in Portland, as of 10:39pm PT last night (that’s 1:39am ET on my internal time clock, yeah, exhausting), I’m excited to continue all this purging, detoxing, cleansing. I’m hoping to maintain that element of self care that always comes with beach life here in my real world in Portland. I’m excited to see what fall brings us.
Disclaimer: I was sent product by Gerolsteiner Sparkling Mineral Water. All opinions are my own. I truly appreciate all the brands that support the Sweat Pink community.