Happy New Year from Val

2013 has been a challenging year for us, as well as for many of our friends. Two have lost their mothers (one just last week), one has lost her father, there has been my cancer recurrence, two friends are wait listed for organ transplants and now Amanda’s father, Colin, is in hospital. We are older and as Kurt Vonnegut famously said:  “So it goes.”

But there were major accomplishments, too. Yoga North faced a big challenge in finding a new home. Early in 2013, the search began and will culminate in the Grand Opening of the Westminster street studio on January 11^th. It is a beautiful space that will enable our local Iyengar Yoga community to grow, flourish and have long-term stability. We have a wonderful community at Yoga North and I am proud to belong to it. Thanks to the partners—Drew, Janine, Regan and Andrea—and to all the students who have made the new studio a reality. I can hardly wait to teach there!

After 20 years of a wonderfully fulfilling relationship, Amanda and I got married. I want to thank her for asking. Whatever happens in 2014, we are truly in it together. I want to thank our friends Yvonne and Randa for organizing, arranging and officiating at the ceremony with only a week’s preparation. It was an amazing and wonderful gathering of close friends.

Early tomorrow morning, Amanda and I will fly to Edmonton for the coming week. Colin has been on oxygen for some months because of his failing heart. Yesterday (Saturday), he was given excellent emergency care and has responded very well, but he has fluid in his lungs and needs higher levels of oxygen. At the age of (almost) 88, he is firmly in possession of all his marbles, and he is at terms and peace with his condition. He may live for months or he may not…Like Yvonne’s mother, he is ready to go, preferably in his sleep. In any case, now is the time to go to see him and Amanda’s mother, Anne.

Anne and Colin have welcomed me into the LeRougetel family completely and unconditionally. They are wonderful, supportive and interesting friends with a lively capacity to discuss almost everything – not to mention fun and competitive at Dominos and Take Two! So, I will be very happy to see them and have time with them.

I want to thank everyone who has sent us cards, brought us food, taken me to CancerCare and generally been available when and if necessary. Your generosity is not just appreciated but also seen as a model of how we all need to and DO respond to those in need in our diverse and diffuse communities. I trust that all of you in your own families and communities are finding the love, support, and enjoyment of those around and close to you. I know how important it is to be embraced by community.

2014 may not be better! It may be worse, the same or it could be better. The most likely thing is that 2014 will be a mixed bag and will provide challenges and difficulties as well as enjoyable experiences. Personally, that is what I think we should hope for—a mixed bag—because then our hopes are most likely to be in sync with reality. (And, if you’ve read one of my previous posts, you will know what Spinoza and I think about hope!!) It feels right to me to think of calling in the New Year with this attitude; it makes me feel more “at home” with whatever may occur. After all, I have CT scans, MUGA scans of heart function and other fun stuff coming up and who knows what they will show? It is hard to think this way, to prepare for highs and lows, rather than to only hope for the best. But accepting reality is better than hoping for what may spin into fantasy.

So, here’s to the mixed bag of 2014! Let’s drink to that. Happy New Year, everyone.