News from Jules | 04.17.2023 | Abundance
After my friends finished rolling in from Denver, San Francisco, and Vancouver, Wash. late Friday night, we stayed up playing ping pong and pool until midnight. To my delight, everybody was still nervously committed to attending water aerobics with all the semi-retired ladies the next morning.
It was a bit of a hustle, but all six of us were fueled with coffee (or tea!), into swimsuits, bundled up for the cold, and smooshed into one car to make it there by 9 a.m.
As we walked into the indoor pool and grabbed our foam weights, I saw three bobbing heads in the deep end. I quickly waded into the water and excitedly swam over while looking for the instructor who teaches the class seven days a week.
My excitement turned to surprise.
Uh oh, the instructor wasn’t there.
After all the hype, I didn’t want to let my friends down. Luckily, I had attended the class a dozen or so times in the nearly two months that I’ve been housesitting here at Black Butte Ranch, so I knew the routine pretty well.
As they swam over, I realized I was the only one who could lead the class. I hoped everything was alright with the instructor and started the warm-up.
Abundance.
Back in November when I was discharged from the hospitals in New York, Washington D.C., and New York again, my first thoughts were about how to recover so I could start training as soon as possible for mountaineering season in Oregon.
My friends graciously offered one of the guest rooms in their spacious new house in Denver, Colo. for as long as I needed. I bought a one-way ticket and arrived a few days later.
Some of the healthiest people I know, I knew they would be a great influence for recovery. After the airport, my friend treated me to lunch at a delicious vegan restaurant before we took a tour of the neighborhood, including parks I could walk to and the nearby recreation center with a pool.
Water rehabilitation seemed like ideal physical therapy. I immediately envisioned walking there on weekdays to take the morning water aerobics class.
I needed a lot more rest than I realized. I didn’t get to the pool after all, but I did build up to walking multiple laps around the nearby park before my friend drove my car from Pennsylvania to Colorado so I could continue on my road trip west.
Abundance.
During my three weeks in Denver, five other guests came and went, including their close friend, a nature-loving gal from Vancouver, Wash.
She was there on a work trip so had some extra time, plus I had nothing to do. While exploring the neighborhood and adventuring to Red Rocks, we became fast friends.
Staying in touch during my road trip, we hung out again once I landed in Portland for the holidays. Later in February, she signed up to attend the annual women’s spiritual group retreat with me at the last minute, rented an adorable Airbnb beach cottage with two bedrooms, and drove her SUV to get us safely through the snow and to the coast.
Abundance.
I slowly started training again in January. But after a few painful hikes and runs, I realized there was still recovery needed from the abdominal surgery and complications in October, plus muscle atrophy from my inactivity during November and December. I remembered the water aerobics class in Denver.
“Is there water aerobics at the pool?” was one of the first things I asked my hosts about when I arrived in March.
“Oh yeah! I go all the time. You can come with me tomorrow,” my host replied.
Bingo!
I went with my host several times in the first week before they departed and immediately befriended the instructor, who is also a neighbor and has been giving me rides on snowy days, and several other ladies, who gave me their phone numbers and offered to help if I needed anything.
Abundance.
Several weeks ago when my Denver friends confirmed their dates for a wedding planning weekend near Sisters, Ore. I replied via text: “Of course, you can stay here.”
Of course, the best friend/officiant could also stay. And of course, our now-mutual friends from Vancouver could join too.
This is how the six of us came to be joyfully and damply squished together into an SUV after water aerobics last weekend.
Because of abundance.
A tapestry of deep generosity woven together into mutual flourishing.
A readiness to offer what we have and others’ need.
A willingness to receive what is freely given.
Skills, health, shelter, food, energy, attention, guidance, help—neverending opportunities for all of us to take care of each other.
May you notice what is freely given this week.
Love,
Jules