Thank goodness for dirt and worms
Suzanne and I have just spent a couple of hours weeding and harvesting (beetroot and celery) in our little allotment. Suzanne had been on a waiting list for an allotment in this little community garden for a good while, and then one little plot became available in June this year.
We jumped at the chance and, with the help of Suzanne's Dad, built a few raised beds to house our vegetable garden. I say, 'with the help of Suzanne's Dad'; what I actually mean is that Suzanne's Dad built some raised beds while we stood around and admired his work.
As I mentioned in the last moon day news, we've been flat out with concerts and rehearsals for the last few months. This past week I've been to Limerick twice and played three different concerts with two different orchestras, while Suzanne has been playing in Letterkenny, Galway, Navan, and Dundalk. We almost managed to keep the shala open for the whole week, but we just weren't able to avoid some cancelled classes, unfortunately.
I've been suffering a lot of back pain these last few weeks from an old disc injury. It comes back a couple of times a year and I'm laid low by it. All the yoga in the world doesn't seem to help. In fact, I haven't been able to do even Surya Namaskara for around 4 weeks now. I can function ok in daily life but I am in a fair bit of pain. Driving and sitting down are the two worst things for it, and I had to do a lot of both last week.
Then Molly, our 9-year-old, got Covid, and the whole week was thrown into doubt. Who was going to take care of her while we were flitting off around Ireland?
My saintly mother insisted on coming and looking after her while we were working so that we didn't have to cancel our work. She knows that our shala has been struggling financially this year (according to our latest figures, we've lost 60% of our income from the shala compared with 2019, before the pandemic), so she was very keen for us not to cancel any music work that we have. I was worried about her catching covid but she was insistent, and thankfully, she didn't.
What a week it was. And not being able to practice made it all the more difficult to manage. It's at times like these you really realise how much you lean on your yoga practice for headspace.
So as Suzanne and I discussed the future of the shala, or even if there is a future for the shala, something which makes us very sad indeed, we decided to go and spend a couple of hours in the allotment.
The experience of the fresh air, sunlight, greenery, and getting our hands dirty pulling food up from the ground makes everything seem better. Unlike staring at attendance reports for the shala, or accounts, or social media, which all seem to take energy away at the moment, we've been staring at leaves, soil, happy worms and a beautiful little Robin (who was even happier to see the worms than we were!).
We honestly can't say yet if the shala in its current incarnation has a future beyond the end of our current lease next October. We never wanted to own a business but as yoga teachers who wanted to do things our own way, we ended up running our own shala. Once you own a shala, it becomes a business whether you like it or not, and you have to pay all the bills one way or another. Additionally, you have to make a living from it, or you won't have the energy to keep doing it.
It's very emotionally taxing to think that all that we've worked for, for more than ten years, may come to nothing, and we'll have to close. We're relying, for now, on working our asses off while the concert calendar is busy so that we can keep some money coming in. That's why we, unfortunately, had to cancel a few classes last week - we kind of have to keep working as musicians so we can pay our way. But it isn't easy. It's the worry that gets you the most.
As always, though (and what has been reaffirmed to me today) one of the best things we can do is just to do our best, keep moving, and make sure to spend some time in nature. Thank god for the great outdoors!
I hope some of the worms got away from that hungry Robin, or they'll be feeling even more sorry for themselves than I do!