So. I hadn't realized how tense my shoulders were on a very deep level until this weekend. That's because they're still twitching in release. Yoga on Monhegan Island is something really special. At the risk of sounding woo-woo (and i am woo-woo, so deal with it), I connected with the earth during my yoga this time in a way that i maybe hadn't ever before, and when lying in savasana (the final resting pose) my shoulders just let loose -- and started twitching! And they still are when i let them relax. Which tells me two things:
1. I should go get some deep tissue massage as soon as possible. It's a little worrying that when I relax my shoulders instead of holding them in an icy lock, they convulse around l/seisurely.
2. There really is something about being in a truer nature with no electricity, no buzzing of electrical things like computers, machines in general, and the background level of excess light and sound. I obviously have a hard time relaxing in a city setting. That was pretty obvious when we returned yesterday after being in the car, and rather than being relieved to be home as usual, i felt.... stressed out about it. All this unnecessary stuff, all this noise, all this light, all the buzzing.
Even stranger is that my allergies have kicked back in now that I have returned home. Whether it's from stress, whether it's because the pollution down here has irritated them again, or whether it's percentage of decorative flowering trees (male semen plants spewing forth pollen with fewer female plants around to absorb it all) -- I am feeling downright sick again today. Did that happen when I was in the middle of a forest on an island in Maine? Nope. Fascinating.
But I'll get off my soapbox now. We all know that Hippy Lindsay is happier in Nature.
Monhegan is a special place at THAT.
Friday morning, the Bogs, Dave, daN, and I took the 10:00 boat out to Monhegan Island. The sea was choppy, and i actually got a little nausea for the first time on a boat ever simply because it was foggy and I couldn't see the horizon if i tried. We made it out there in good time, and shortly thereafter, the sun came out :) Just in time for us to get settled and go out for a sprint down to Lobster Cove, around the corner to one side to a shipwreck that is more rusty every time i see it, and around the other corner is the house of Jaime Wyeth, famous Maine watercolorist. It was near sunset, and the colors of autumn meeting the steely sky and ocean were overwhelming. Literally. It brought me to tears as I stopped dead in my tracks. How beautiful.
And the next couple days proceeded like that. We stayed there on Friday and Saturday nights, leaving on the 12:30 boat on Sunday. But it felt like a lot longer. I would love to have been there for a lot longer indeed. Fortunately, Monhegan is one of those places where a little bit of time is quite healing, and i don't leave feeling as though i wasn't there for long enough. I just appreciate every bit of being there.
Maybe it's that there's nothing else to do there, but everything feels so much better on Monhegan. Spend the days hiking the trails, but it's small enough to hike back to the house for lunch and dinner so you don't have to carry anything other than water and an extra layer for when it gets cold. Spend the evenings playing games and talking and going to bed early. There's literally nothing to do but to enjoy being there. Since I was physically removed from daily life, i didn't find myself thinking about future plans, or what i had to do or who i was going to try to see that day somehow (as is often the case when we go somewhere that there are many people whom we know and love) -- all we had to do was be there. All we had to do was enjoy eating the incredibly simply and yet somehow all-too-flavorful food. All we had to do was take in the views, revel in bouncing from rock to rock, revel in the contrast of fall colors, revel in the Fairy Forest and pause to make them a nice house. Nothing to do but be present.
When we got home last night, i caught myself rushing around. Why? It wasn't going to save me any time. I found myself habitually doing three things at the same time. (!!?!?) I might be the queen of multitasking, but that doesn't mean that i should be doing it in my spare time. I am making a point of doing one thing at a time right now in my spare time. I have been driving myself crazy, and now i'm going to have to spend $250 on a deep tissue massage to unwind the damage I have helped to do, totally unwittingly. I need to pay more attention!
Enough about that. Here are the pictures:
On that note, it's going to be a very busy few weeks, and I'll be off-the-radar.
- Weekend of October 7, daN and i are going to Maine again for my Mum's wedding! YAY!
- Weekend of October 14, some beloved Hampshire friends of mine are visiting, and we'll be going to Hampshire for bits of the alumni weekend.
- Weekend of October 20, i'll be preparing for a big meeting that has been taking up all my time at work lately.
- Weekend of October 27, no offense, i'll be introvert-ing pretty hardcore.
OK -- that's long enough. I'm going to go shower and make some pie (not at the same time).
One thing at a time.
No comments:
Post a Comment