Ride the Roller Coaster

"Peace does not mean no trouble, noise, or hard work. It is being in the midst of all of that and still remaining calm in your heart"

  If there is one thing I have learned over and over in life, it is to expect the unexpected. Each day is like getting up and climbing onto a roller coaster ride while wearing a semi transparent blindfold, so you can sort of make out where you are going, but nothing is for certain. Some days roll along with only a few dips and curves and others rise and fall with great intensity and loop de loop until it is not clear which way is up.
  My day yesterday was in the second category. It went like this. I got up did my yoga and meditation, had breakfast and then got kids up and ready for camp, going good. Go to leave for camp with neighbor kids in tow and low and behold my battery is dead. This happened as a result of my kids helping to clean the car to prepare it to be traded in later in the day yesterday. I go from calm and serene to total panic in about two seconds flat, since not only am I driving kids to camp, I have to teach yoga in less than an hour. I call the neighbor, she takes the kids, and her husband, thank goodness, can come jump my car. Heart rate slows, anxiety recedes.
   I get to the yoga studio and have a nice class with a few more students than usual, which is good, and I am feeling much more myself. Things were seeming to shift back to more of an easy ride. I left the studio smiling. Driving home, all is well and I see a teen girl near the road with a cute little Jack Russell on a leash. Suddenly the dog is loose and running right in front of my car. I do my best to swerve, but there is oncoming traffic, and I hear and feel a sickening thud. I immediately begin to sob uncontrollably. I pull over and jump out of the car, I run to the girl and I am a shrieking, sobbing disaster. This girl is upset of course, but more together than me, and goes into the road and picks up the dog. I am astounded when I realize the dog is alive! I sit with the dog while she fetches her brother, and off they go to rush to the vet, leaving me a more mangled mess than the dog.
  I manage to get it together to finish my drive home, and Mason, who had no camp yesterday, finds himself having to reassure a still shaken and blubbering version of mom that everything is OK. I called the vet where I thought they had gone and found out the dog was going to make it. Once again I settled down and rode the wave. The day continued with a great meeting with yoga teachers, a rumbling thunderstorm that made Harper and our dog Evan cry, a trip to leave one car behind and take home a  shiny new (to us) one, an ice cold beer and finally sleep. Today has been a different ride, less intense so far, but who knows?  Gotta ride the roller coaster.

The quote at the beginning is in the bathroom at the yoga studio where I teach and I really took notice of it before class yesterday. Hmmmmm..... will keep that one close.