the year of letting go, of understanding loss. grace. of the word ‘no’ and also being able to say ‘you are not kind’. the year of humanity/humility. when the whole world couldn’t get out of bed. everyone i’ve met this year, says the same thing ‘you are so easy to be around, how do you do that?’. the year i broke open and dug out all the rot with own hands. the year i learnt small talk. and how to smile at strangers. the year i understood that i am my best when i reach out and ask ‘do you want to be my friend?’. the year of sugar, everywhere. softness. sweetness. honey honey. the year of being alone, and learning how much i like it. the year of hugging people i don’t know, because i want to know them. the year i made peace and love, right here.

-- Warsan Shire

The You Can Tell Me Goodbye

“Thank God I found the GOOD in goodbye”

― Beyoncé Knowles

nothing but happiness

Pelle had already begun to dread the awful day when they would all have to go back to town. He had an old comb with as many teeth as the summer had days. Every morning he broke off a tooth and noticed anxiously how the comb grew thinner and thinner.

Melker saw the comb one morning and threw it away. To worry about the future was the wrong attitude toward life, he said. One should enjoy each day as it came. On a sunny morning like the present one, life was nothing but happiness. How wonderful it was to go straight out into the garden in pajamas, feeling the dew-wet grass under one’s feet, and then take a dip from the jetty and afterward sit down at the painted garden table to read a book or the paper while drinking delicious coffee, with the children milling around!

Astrid Lindgrin, Seacrow Island via evencleveland

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” 

― Terry Pratchett

Some News...

Ladies and Gentlemen // Boys and Girls // Feminists, Macho Men and Mum:

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**** AU REVOIR ****
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Yep, the rumors are true. I am devastated to inform you that my much beloved teaching practice, this tiny epic of mixed up movement, will soon be no more...for the time being anyway...as I am of to new worlds to seek some slowness, some new ways of moving, some adventures, to gather some stories and to get married.
First stop The United States of ALL-You-Can-Eat. Oh yes. Tips about your State-side trips most welcome!

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to YOU dearest reader, for showing up in your hordes for the last 7 years of toe-tapping yoga musings. Together we’ve crammed the archaic doorways of church halls, stinky basements, grand houses, swanky custom built centers, parks, beaches, living rooms and tea-stained cafeterias in celebration of this ancient art and in search of what it is to simply be. Thank you for listening, thank you for questioning, thank you for putting up with my inability to tell left from right, but most of all THANK YOU for allowing me to guide you.

Without you, nothing. With you, EVERYTHING.

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**** Details ****
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My final class will be Thursday 9th July so, from now until then and in celebration of this momentous scarpering, I shall host a glorious last few sessions, far removed from the ridiculous rain and unseasonal no sun show of daily downtown London. I invite you to step inside my soon to be no-longer homes at Triyoga and SFC where i shall serenade you with my West Midland flat vowels, various movement puzzles, giggles, and some farewell chocolate brownies. It will be somewhat reminiscent of a pub evening during Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee in 1977. I imagine that was a BLAST.

Information about the glorious souls that will be taking my place to follow, I promise, I am just finalising the details for a perfectly smooth transition. You’ll not even notice I’ve gone…

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**** PEN-PALS ****
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However, this is not the end; I will be teaching again, you still MOVE ME and my online presence will be alive and kicking. I shall continue to post scribblings and asides on my blogs here and here, upload movement musings on my facehooked page and twitter feed here and here and the curation of wwww.what-moves-me.com is a forever thing. I’ve been completely overwhelmed with responses to this project so far, MERCI MERCI, but if you haven’t yet had a nosy then please take a look.

Do keep in-touch, I’d love to hear about all your adventures, and if I do return y’all will be the first to know about my new happenings.

Finally, before I schlep these legs across the pond, my eyes wet with salty tears and my ears ringing with the sound of Jacques Brel, I want to say the most heartfelt thank you to all the many staff members, volunteers, part-timers, full-timers, co-workers and by-standers who have dripped sweat into the shores of this infamous lagoon. You’ve been dreamy to work with.

And with that, farewell.
(until the next time I fill your inbox with nonsense)

Rachel x