Open for business

In England our lockdown rules change again on Monday as part of the easing of restrictions. We will be allowed to socialise indoors and hospitality venues can offer indoor service. Hugging will be also officially permitted, with some advice on frequency and contact time 🙂

It’s actually coincidental that I’m visiting my parents this week, but it will be wonderful to feel able to be a bit freer with them, eat indoors together and so on. And those long-awaited hugs!!! I haven’t seen them since last summer, the longest we’ve been apart in my whole life — as my mum keeps telling me! Since our last two visits got cancelled owing to sudden government u-turns, I am unable to give free reign to my excitement this time round. I have been disappointed, frustrated and scared for too long. Now I feel deeply tired. Although I know when the time comes I will be hardly able to contain myself. I already catch myself grinning goofily when I start to think about being with them again 🙂

As if that wasn’t enough excitement, yoga studios are allowed to open for group classes and I have booked in for a class! I have been seeing my teacher regularly anyway, so this does’t feel quite as special as it might for some. Actually, I’m a little nervous about it. I’ve always been ambivalent about classes and the whole studio vibe. When it suits me and feels right, the experience of a room full of people moving in their practice and the teacher supporting us all is unbeatable. But I’ve gone more than a year without this and my yoga has not deserted me. Now that I have a choice I’m no longer sure whether I crave it or have moved in a different direction. Perhaps (as my teacher is always reminding me!) it doesn’t have to be one thing or the other — it can be somewhere in between, in a grey area. Which despite the dull colouring is usually a much more interesting place 🙂 I’m sure it will be a wonderful experience!