soul stretch yoga blog

At a recent dinner with friends: Rose, what happened to the email blasts? I haven’t gotten one in months.

Yogis from classes: I miss the email blasts, Rose!

Random people at the Lakeside Farmer’s market: I sure wish you’d start doing email blasts and podcasts again.

Alright already, Universe, I heard you. But the circular story of why the blasts stopped and how they restarted isn’t just my story. It’s Tina’s and Kathleen’s, too, and because we all three try to look for God’s hand in our lives, it’s a story with a happy ending.

Here’s the thing. Unless you put God first, you’ll never feel the serendipitous nudges or hear the words of enlightenment being sent your way. In my experience, God doesn’t speak in a sonorous voice or throw fireballs to get my attention. The whispers and clues are there, and if we are putting God first, if we are paying attention to our relationship with God, we are so much more likely to see and hear them.

My wise Irish barista, Sid, shared a visualization of how this works...

Note: My word for my higher power is God. Yours may be Yahweh or Buddha or the Divine or the Creator. Whatever name you put in the first triangle, let it be a force of amazing justice and kindness and peace.

It’s called the God Pyramid.

The first priority, the source of your wisdom and power and balance, is God.

And then you.

This is the path, yogis. Look to the Divine, first and always, for your wisdom and power and enlightenment. And put yourself second, because you need a right relationship with the Divine in order to have a right relationship with your husband, children, parents, work, friends. We seek God’s guidance in our daily lives, looking for our path, listening for counsel. God first, you second, and never put anyone or anything between you and God on the Pyramid. You can download and print a version of this to fill out on your own right here.

Which brings us back to the blast.

A few months ago, Kathleen, the wordsmith of the blasts, decided to retire from her role at Soul Stretch. She has aging parents, a husband who wants to spend more time in the sunshine, grandchildren in NC. And I moved to Marblehead and then, horror of horrors, closed the Westlake studio. We went from being around-the-corner neighbors who worked on blasts at our kitchen tables to not seeing each other for over a year and working via Zoom (of course Covid didn’t help!)

Tina and I got it but it didn’t make the change any easier. Yet, we told ourselves, maybe it was time to move on, just the two of us. Maybe it was time to let the blasts go and just do the podcasts.

So, we recorded a podcast, in which we talked about Kathleen moving on, among many things. At the end, we both agreed we killed it. Our best podcast ever. When we were done patting each other on the back, we hit play and sat back to revel in our awesomeness. The only sound we heard was a screech like you hear when you dial a fax machine’s number. We fast forwarded a minute or two. More screeching. We zipped all the way to the end…screeching like a dial-up modem trying to connect. Our glorious, sure-to-win-an-award podcast was lost to the world. A technical malfunction. So we set up another recording date, which I had to cancel, and then another recording date … for July 26.

On July 25, I got this text from Kathleen: Is it too late to rescind my resignation? (My pastor) was talking about how we are never “finished” with our life’s work, our purpose, and I realized the blasts are part of my life’s work and I miss doing it. So, here I am, hat in hand. 🥰

The very next day we would have recorded another podcast and announced to the Soul Stretch world that Kathleen had resigned. There is no doubt in my mind that God tinkered with our recording equipment and my schedule. There is no doubt in my mind that God, through Pastor Keith, whispered to Kathleen. And there is no doubt in my mind that because we all three strive to live the God Pyramid, we saw the path open up before us.

The three of us had lunch the other day to plan the next couple blasts. And as Tina said, Boy, is it good to have the band back together.

Lovelies, live the God pyramid. Learn to listen for the Divine, to see the clues before you. Understand that unless you fill yourself with God’s grace, put yourself first after God, you will not have the wisdom and power and balance to sustain your purpose and those you love.

Look for Part II: Spiritual Maintenance in your mailbox next week!