When my first child was two years old, I enrolled in a yoga class at the local church. They had continuing education classes and that seemed like a good idea for a stressed-out mother of a two-year-old. And I loved it. It gave me stress relief and I soon found out it also enhanced my strength. I had never been an athlete, but I soon learned how much better I felt when I exercised.
I continued on with yoga classes at the YWCA and YMCA and soon was asked to lead the class. By now I had two children and it brought in a little money and gave me some adult time. Back years ago, it wasn’t necessary to be certified to teach a class and I was just parroting what I’d been taught. But my classmates and I got a good workout. I read books and tried to bring something new to the class now and then.
By the time I had two children, I was certified to teach swimming. I taught swimming at the local YMCA, city pool, and home pools all over town. Soon I was also teaching the water aerobics class too. But sometimes I still taught yoga and substituted for other assorted classes at the YMCA.
The workout made me feel good and helped stave off weight gain.
Then I went back to school and into an office full time to help with family expenses. I sat at a desk daily and sometimes ran to the Y at noon or after work to work out. It made me feel good even though I was a busy working mother. But I still sat for at least eight hours a day and it took its toll on my body.
By the time I was fifty, my spine had a degenerative back disease (arthritis) and the joints in my spine were disintegrating. Now retired I have had three back surgeries. Somedays I walk better than others. But I am still walking my dog, doing water aerobics at the Y, and practicing yoga on Saturday mornings. I’ve come full circle. And the teacher, in my Saturday morning online yoga class, is my daughter. The same two-year-old who sent me to yoga in the first place. But she’s spent years getting certified and teaches in many different places on the campus where she works, churches, and yoga studios. It is a great stress relief for her and her students after a long week at work.
I am a great believer in the fact that exercise is the best medicine. Without my exercise I might not be walking at all. Somedays, my legs don’t want to do what I ask of them due to nerve damage, but they are still under me and moving me forward.
Exercise is the best medicine. Get out there and move when you’re not reading. Your body as well as your mind needs it.
What are you exercising/reading/writing this week?
The air went from crisp to heat again this week. Thursday is the first day of fall and someone needs to tell the Oklahoma weather. I wrote about how cool it was last week, and of course we’re back to heat again.
On October 15, in Enid, Oklahoma, the Enid Writers Club will host 100 Years of Writing a day-long workshop held at St. Matthews Episcopal Church featuring three very different writers. There will be something for everyone.
Today is a somber day, 9/11 or September 11, Patriots Day. I thought about reminiscing about that horrible day but decided to go with something a little more upbeat.
I told you last week that my writing club will soon be celebrating 100 years of writing. And we’re doing a few things leading up to that day.
My oldest granddaughter flew in from Colorado this week to visit family. We’re thrilled to see her. My daughter’s side of the family will meet for dinner at her house, and I was asked to bring my mother-in-law’s Cream Cake. It is a favorite of the granddaughter’s.
It’s Sunday and time for another blog! I thought we might talk a little about writing this morning. There are many aspects of storytelling, but one that stands out is always the perfect first line.
I attended Enid’s Fly Film Festival 
It’s raining in Oklahoma! And finally cooling down those intense temperatures. I looked out the front door and saw a large garter snake on the sidewalk trying to get out of the flooded flowerbeds that were cracked and dry last week. Hard to blame him. But rainy weather is a good time to write, and I’ve been working on my third novel on Sandhill Island. I’ll work some more on that today.
A few weeks ago, I got a message about the death of Jim Christina of The Writers’ Block online radio show on LA Talk Radio. Jim had become a friend over the years as he interviewed me several times when I had a new novel published. “Let us know when you have a new book, we’ll talk,” he’d say. I believed him and emailed them with a new publication and was always welcomed. Hopefully, I didn’t overstay my welcome. But he always made me feel at home.
Peggy Chambers "Views from the Hammock" site 