Kerri On Down The Road

 One morning last week, as I sat on the beach preparing to dip, I took a few extra moments to admire the tiniest slivers of colour peeking through the dark clouds. There was at least a half-hour until sunrise officially occurred, making this the pre-show before the sun was visible.  I love this time of day because you never know what you might see.  The colour of the sky changes before you can register it or try to capture it on your phone, leaving you to simply observe and marvel at its beauty. This morning, these slivers of color were the sum total of the sun that appeared.  What struck me as I waded into the lake to take in the show was the sense of anticipation and wonder that I felt as I watched the colours appear and then fade away -- the promise of a new day on the horizon and all that it might (or might not) bring with it.   How often do we have the chance to step outside our daily routine to be present in the moment and to be open to what may come,...

 Box jumps?!?  Did he just say we are doing box jumps???  It was the end of Friday's workout, a beta test of new programming dropping in a few weeks.  My workout partner and I were the only two in our time slot and were running through exercises that, while not new, were being presented in a new format.  Box jumps, however, were not something that I had on my radar at all.   Let me back up to explain why this basic move had me shook - I am scared of jumping.  Throughout my life I have avoided the need to jump in most activities I pursue (aside from skipping rope as a kid, which I don't feel qualifies).  Anytime a workout included plyometrics, I bowed out.  The reason behind this fear is basic self-preservation, and perhaps a bit of humiliation suffered during high jump in grade eight when I landed on an already well-worn bamboo pole, causing it to make a cracking noise which my jerk of a gym teacher put down to me breaking the pole....

This past weekend I had the opportunity to embrace creativity through playing with clay.  Although I was an enthusiastic crafter as a child, creating earrings and other jewlery pieces, I had never thrown clay before and had images of my half-completed vases being flung off of an out of control pottery wheel.  I shrugged off my self-doubt, reminding myself that this was all about fun and play, not end results.     As I was handed my first ball of clay to work with it dawned on me that I hadn't given any prior thought to what I wanted to create during the workshop.  So unlike me to not have a plan or even remote idea of what I was working toward.  I started to work the lump into a ball, allowing my hands to explore and exeriment.  Our instructor gave us guidance regarding shaping and defining our pieces, but the rest was up to us.  To say the experience was soothing would be an understatement.  It felt magical to watch as my unseemly ball ...

 This week, I was introduced to a quote by Paulo Coelho that really stuck with me. He writes, "Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that isn't really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place." I have felt this unbecoming over the past few months; a slow unraveling of old beliefs, narratives, and ways of being that have been slowly replaced by a sense of homecoming.  It has felt like I've stumbled across an old trail of breadcrumbs left to guide me back to myself.  There is a sense of knowing and familiarity along with wonder and peace - could this place I find myself be where I have always meant to end up? This is not to say that I have solved some great riddle of life or that I am certain of where I'm headed.  What has changed in the background is the feeling that I am playing a part or am simply going along with someone else's script and doing what is expected of me, bec...

I appreciate the Universe's way of imparting wisdom. That said, I don't always appreciate it in the moment. It more often than not requires some time to process before admiration can take hold. In the moment, I am usually too busy swearing and asking, "WHY?"  I have enjoyed two such moments in the past week, both involving a rather large bag of frozen berries, gravity, and my kitchen floor. I will admit, that I am someone who tends to have more than one thought in my mind and more than one activity on the go at any given moment.  I am not sure if this is related to an undiagnosed attention deficit or the result of spending more than two decades in the corporate world where "multi-tasking" was seen as the holy grail of productivity.  (Spoiler alert - it is actually impossible for the human brain to effectively or efficiently work on more than one task at once, thus rendering the whole idea of multi-tasking null and void).  Regardless of the underlying reason,...

 Yesterday marked a remarkable milestone for me - 365 consecutive days of cold exposure.   When I first stepped foot in Lake Ontario late last January, I did so out of curiosity and a desire to add a new recovery modality to my running regime.  I did not expect nor intend for this to become a daily ritual...and yet here I was yesterday morning, easing back into one of the snowdrifts outside of my house in the wee hours of the morning, taking deep and slow breaths and allowing the cold to seep into my body. Unlike other habits or hobbies I hold dear, cold dipping over the past year has opened me up to some unexpected life lessons, often taught at the water's edge only to be applied at later dates and times. I have felt myself open up, expand my thinking, and come back to my true essence by simply allowing myself to let go of fear and reframe what it means to be temporarily uncomfortable.  One of the most impactful aspects of this journey has centred on the act of...

In light of Valentine's Day and the focus on relationships this time of year brings, I found myself reflecting on the relationship that I have had with my body over the years.  I was not what you would call an athletic child.  Sure I would spend many hours outdoors with my friends riding bikes, playing games, and adventuring around the neighbourhood, but I was not involved in any organized sports and did not excel in gym class at school.  I was a bit chubby and remember hoping and wishing that I would magically grow into my body one day, sprouting up enough inches to stretch my flesh across a longer frame.  That wish didn't come true, and I found myself looking for other ways to try and combat what I had determined was a problem -- restrictive eating, excessing exercising, and eventually going to a weight counselling centre where I was put on a diet that helped me lose excess weight.  At no time on that weight-loss journey did anyone mention the importance of re...