Some people think it will be too easy.  Some people think it will be too hard.  If you've never done it, you probably don't really know what yoga is at all.  At first glance, yoga appears to be a type of exercise.  Dig deeper, and you'll find a model for mind and body wellness, and even deeper still, you'll discover all the nuances of what makes yoga so much more than what's on the surface.

When I left my class last night I felt so much gratitude.  The participants who come to my classes bring so much joy to me in my life.  Sometimes waking up at 5AM to teach a class seems daunting.  I have been struggling recently with the perception of my ability to keep people engaged.  These are some of the negative feelings I have been having as I navigate my schedule and the longevity of my attention to continue to teach yoga.  The beauty I felt after leaving class last night reminded me that it is not my purpose to engage my class...yoga does that itself in so many wonderful ways.  I just have to love it, and the rest will come across perfectly.

Yoga Is Quiet.  As my daughter once asked after her first real class with me, "why do you get to be the only one who gets who gets to chatty chatty chat chat and the rest of us just stay quiet?".  Even with the voice of an instructor throughout class, the room is quiet.  We listen to the sound of our breath, our movements, each other. 

Yoga Is Present.  We come to yoga for one reason, to be in the moment.  To notice how we feel, to put aside the needs of others and reflect inward.  We greet the evening, afternoon, or morning with a sense oneness to what surrounds us.

Yoga Is Kind.  This is not a place you push yourself until you feel like you're going to vomit or pass out.  This is the place and the time you connect with what you need, doing what feels right and honoring where you are.

Yoga Is Community.  We grow together, in practice and in friendship.  We acknowledge we come together with the same values, the same intentions, and the same kind hearts. 

Yoga Is Supportive.  Everyone is welcome, no one does it wrong.  It doesn't matter if it's your first class, how old or young you are, what abilities you possess. 

Yoga Is the Absence of Purpose.  We live as though "our purpose" defines us, and for much of our existence this purpose, either real or self-implied,  encompasses much of our time and thought.   We worry about it, fear it, and enjoy it.  In quiet moments we are able to put it aside, we embrace what it is to move, to breathe, to be.

Yoga has filled my heart with so much gratitude over the years.  It has become such a part of my schedule sometimes I forget it's not my "purpose" at all.  It's just something I want to share.

Over the weekend I had several people to the pop-up shop stop in, only to have been hoping for "more".   A few walked in, checked out the empty part of the shop, and asked if this was it?  Some stayed and chatted, some left, some left with stuff.   In some of these moments I felt a tad bit disheartened, like we weren't enough.  Why wasn't the space I had created with my own ideas and own hands enough?  But I knew that wasn't true, and, I realized, it's not everyday that someone walks into the very place where a maker studies, experiments, hones their skills, builds their brand.  Sometimes I forget that every brand ever created started as a single person, making something.  That brand travels through it's life not as a logo on a shirt, but as the idea and creation of an individual.  As others come into that brand; the creatives, the testers, the users, the brand morphs, it changes to draw together a set of values, as the maker you have no idea that you are creating a collection with so much heart it eventually comes alive.

Often times when I lived in Vegas I never felt like anything was enough.  Never enough money.  Never enough time.  Never enough space, never enough stars.  I always felt like I was struggling to know my true self.  When we arrived at the farm, on the land in the spacious countryside, looking out the window at a sea of golden corn was enough.

I like that we have created enough brand to have an address.  I like joining the makers serving in our community.  I like watching the community gather around it's makers.  I value every person that loves to make something having an audience to share their love of craftsmanship.  

In moments of brief self-loathing I have to remind myself it is a wonderful thing when a maker opens a store.  So unique that people may not know what to expect when they walk in the door. 

This photo does not represent my product, but it does represent my dream.  My dream of less waste, more refilling, buying personal care in bulk, and reducing our footprint in an industry laden with so much waste.  I kind of wish I would have thought of this from the get-go, because it hard as hell to change direction when you get 6-years into a branding concept that seems to be working.  And, let's face it, how many stores want to carry bulk containers, and how many customers can afford to pay for glass packaging?  Maybe more than I think. I hope so. 

The last several months of me have been filled with the type of dreaming I was doing when I started reading stories of the city-to-farm movement 10 years ago.  I remember those days, picturing myself living in a big, round yurt, surrounded by land and books, ingesting the DIY projects in the pages from baking bread to raising bees.  And here we are.  No yurt, but a beautiful 120-year-old farmhouse.  I love that our house has stood that long.  The history greets me everyday, in so many ways.  Sometimes when I'm cold in the winter I think about how much of a struggle it was to heat this home in 1900.  I think about the times without electricity and how the general tasks of everyday living we try to squeeze in around working were the only thing the first family in this dwelling had any time for.  They weren't consumed with social media, annoying politics, or mass-produced over-consumption.  They simply lived, made what they needed, scavenged the earth for materials, bartered and borrowed within their surrounding community, and made things last as long as possible.  Life was fresh, local, and not taken for granted.

That life, this house and it's history speaks to me so deeply, yet it seems where the difficulty at that time was getting through each day with all that had to be done for simply surviving on a farm, my greatest difficulty is the tugging at my heart about the waste that happens all around us, and within our home, and business, and it becomes so incredibly overwhelming I wonder if it's even worth it.  Should I just stop caring?  Not possible.  Can I make an impact?  I have to try.

It is a fine line we walk in the natural care industry to create a safe, sanitary, effective product.  On one side, disposable packaging ensures the integrity of the final product and is significantly less expensive than eco-friendly counterparts, making natural care products more accessible to more people, not just those who can afford "the luxury".  I do not think natural products should be considered luxury products, they should be able to be used by everyone, everyday.  These natural ingredients and products, when sustainably sourced and purchased from small companies, are already more expensive, why add to that with additional packaging costs?  On the other side of that line lies the insane amount of waste that occurs when a consumable product is used up and all that's left is the bottle, and the pump, or the jar and the cap.  These are, as stated before, things we use every single day, they go away, they are consumed, they are washed away, they are gone.

Zero waste packaging is becoming a growing trend in this industry, but not all products can exist without a container.  But does that container have to be used just once?  Come dream with me.  I want a place where containers can be brought in and refilled.  I want a place with bulk containers where laundry detergent and bath salts can be scooped into a muslin sack that can be washed and reused, brought back, and filled again.  I want glass containers that are purchased once, returned to my place, cleaned and sanitized, and used again for the exact same purpose it was always intended.  Need a wrapping?  How about cellophane?  It's compost able and made from plant materials.   Don't want to put a glass container in the shower or bath in case it breaks?  How about hemp bio-plastic bottles?  I have read they decompose in just 53 days in a compost heap.  What about those customers that can't come to my place?  How about biodegradable refill pouches sold in bulk so they have more product, saving the customer money, using less packaging material, and allowing each purchase to last longer?  You have no idea the amount of hours I have put into researching these options, contacting companies, weighing out costs, and looking at huge boxes of plastic bottles in my storage room, just waiting to get through them so I can move into an emotional place where I can feel good about not only the beautiful natural ingredients that go into our products, our commitment to purchasing from family-owned, small companies who are ethical in sourcing from the earth, and our desire to source as much of what we use within 3 states of where we live, but also about this next phase of figuring out how to eliminate the line, and create safe, effective products with a commitment to reducing waste.  Just like our homestead dreams, I know this one isn't far from reality. 

Need a great reuse idea?  Check out my post on making your own Springtime Inhaler with an empty essential oil bottle!