It’s the dog days of summer. This year, more than any other, we need to rest, reflect and prepare for what lies ahead. The stress, change, and uncertainty of the last five months has been exhausting.

For more than 20 years, Retrofit has helped change people’s lives for the better by providing a safe, compassionate, and fun environment – a community hub – full of Pilates professionals who are committed to our client’s physical and mental health.

Then, like everyone else, Retrofit had to pivot our business, quickly and with no preparation. We went online and had to simultaneously prepare for a multitude of unknown outcomes. When would we be allowed to reopen? What would it look like and how could we best, and safely, serve our clients?

And so we created a plan to address the new challenges. Now that the province has authorized Toronto to move to Stage 3, the studio will reopen for private instruction with all safety protocols in place August 10. In September we will begin offering a modified schedule of group classes. Information on all aspects of our operations will be shared through email, text and on our website and social media channels.

The pandemic has challenged everyone’s community engagement. As businesses shuttered, our community was disengaged. Fear, distance and uncertainty all took a toll.

So the next challenge is for our community to reengage in the joy of creating and sustaining strength, fortitude and resilience.

A colleague of mine posted this thought the other day: “It’s really hard to create change when you keep doing what you are doing, even if you love it like a child. It’s like being on a train track. It’s hard to go anywhere but follow the track. Changes like (some of us) are all experiencing literally blow up the track. It’s scary and viscerally threatening, but it is also the place where good things can happen. Electrons don’t just jump into the next orbital. They need a push.”

No one wanted the pandemic. But it has provided a big push. The economic closing and now reopening has forced us to adapt, abandon, renew and change.

So we at Retrofit have done all we can do. The plans are made, the communications written, contingencies A, B, and C conceived.

Now we wait and see.

So during these dog days, as summer winds down, I am going to breathe. I will rest and reflect and open my heart and mind to the infinite possibilities change can bring.

As my colleague noted, change is where good things happen. So the one thing I am sure of is this: it’s gonna be good.