Celebrating growth!
Celebrating Our Incredible St. Maarten Retreat!
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.
”
Dear community-
How are you?? My recent weeks have been so full. I started using the word "full" as opposed to "busy" when responding to friends' inquiries around how I've been or how my day/week/life is going. We so often default to "Things are good." Or, "I've been busy." Or, "I'm tired." And although this may all be true and the easiest descriptions to grab onto during a brief check-in, I'm working on digging a little deeper and allowing myself to feel into my own self-inquiry and responding in a way that feels a bit more intentional and less of an auto-pilot reaction.
Last month I returned from my Caribbean retreat in St. Maarten and I felt nearly blissful. I was equal parts inspired and recharged, deeply fulfilled and resonating with joy and ease. I felt myself wishing that these feelings could last forever while knowing deep down that they simply couldn't. Because as is life, all of our feeling states simply come and they go. Ah, but what a gift to feel the highest of the highs.
I'm reminded of this as I watch the many recent graduates stroll the city streets in their caps and gowns these last weeks of May. Beaming with what I'm interpreting as happiness, pride, and relief, I've enjoyed observing these giddy graduates with their families and loved ones. I'm recalling my own feelings as I completed my undergraduate studies as a young 20-something ready to step into a new chapter, and again with all the complexities as a recent graduate with a performing arts master's degree during the global pandemic. Still, there's something so satisfying to be done with something---the ritual of closing a chapter and the rich possibilities of opening a new one.
We experience closures as children and adolescents again and again each year as we move into the next grade, taking summers off, and returning in the fall refreshed to begin again. I'm wondering now how we might insert more of these moments into our adult life, outside of the pressure-soaked New Years' resolutions and birthday celebrations where we often feel a need to fix ourselves and be a better version of ourselves. What if we could put on a metaphorical cap and gown and parade around the city with our loved ones honoring all that we've done in this life, outside of academia and institutions? How could we recognize and ritualize our life as an accomplishment? Isn't our life's work worth celebrating? How can we create a ritual for closure so that we can allow ourselves to graduate into our next stage of life?
I'll be sitting with these questions as I watch the smiling grads and proud families pass by me in the coming days. I'm sending them loving, hopeful energy while celebrating my own life, including all of my achievements and successes, my failures, the messy middles and the in-betweens, the not-yet-known, the near bliss, and the miracle of the here and now.
Speaking of recent graduates and transitions, I'm so excited to be welcoming back Lucy Kerr to the studio this weekend after a hiatus where she has been exploring her passions in film and art at the acclaimed Cal Arts. I've been so fortunate to experience Lucy's incredible skills as a highly attuned Pilates instructor as well as her beautiful film-making and performance art work where she brings a deep level of attention to landscape while offering new ways of witnessing and being with bodies and movement. I'm thrilled to have Lucy back in New York City and in the studio! More on Lucy and how to book with her below.
In continued gratitude,
Brynne
Welcome Back, Lucy Kerr!
Lucy’s Studio Appointments available*
Mondays 8am-1pm
Thursdays 8am-1pm
Fridays 8am-1pm
Saturdays 10am-3pm
*As of 5/20/2023
Lucy Kerr has been teaching Pilates, somatics, performance, and embodiment since 2016. She grew up training as a ballet dancer and later transitioned into contemporary performance and choreography. Pilates helped Lucy recover from hip and shoulder injuries following many years of intensive ballet training, and she continues to use Pilates as a way to foster resilience and manage pain. Lucy received her Pilates mat and apparatus certification from Gramercy Pilates NYC, where she also focussed on Prenatal and Postnatal Pilates, injury prevention and rehabilitation, and working with special populations.
Lucy enjoys crafting flowing sequences while cultivating stability and alignment and tailoring each session to the unique situation of the client. Lucy also enjoys incorporating somatics and image-based prompts and cues from her embodiment practice and training in Noguchi Taiso. Lucy received a BA in Dance and Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin and she holds an MFA in Film/Video and Art from California Institute of the Arts. As a filmmaker and artist, Lucy continues to make movement, the body, and choreography an integral part of her practice.