I confess that a lot of my time is spent checking things off an ever growing To Do List. That doesn’t change when it comes to the end of the year and the holidays. Coordinating visits with family and friends, planning meals–both the everyday and the very special variety, sending mail and packages, baking cookies and shopping for the kids in our lives, plus the usual attempts to clean house, work out, and manage a busy Pilates schedule. It’s tempting to just put my head down and push through without actually taking the time to enjoy any of it. That’s often how I get stuff done, but it isn’t necessarily the best way to live!

This holiday season, I want to make sure I take moments to celebrate. Celebrate my friends and the time we get to spend together–which feels a lot more precious now than ever before. Celebrate time in the outdoors and doing festive things around the city. Celebrate traditions passed down from the generations before me and the new traditions we’ve created for our small family. And celebrate accomplishments–even the small ones.

I encourage all of you to celebrate, too. The holiday season can be filled with blue days, when we’re reminded of people we’ve lost, or dreams that may never come to pass. It’s dark at 4pm! It’s cold outside! But there are many reasons to celebrate. The coloured lights and decorations that bring a little magic to our ordinary streets and homes. The fellowship we share in class with other clients and teachers, laughing and commiserating together. The improvements and growth we experience in our practice–adding a spring or learning a new exercise, or moving up to a more challenging class.

I keep coming back to a quote attributed to Oprah Winfrey: “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”

And in the spirit of continuing traditions, thank you in advance for your contributions to the Redwood Shelter.

Pam Ferguson
Retrofit Master Instructor
Lead Instructor/Operations Associate