A car, a bus, two planes, and one very big boat.

What a few weeks!  I've worked 10 hours a day straight almost every day and come home and crashed, celebrated my daughter's 40th b'day, suffered through hearing about my little grandson's head being shaved (damn lice!), arranged a housesitter for my very spoiled cat, found out that my new obviously not-so-smart phone hasn't taken your messages so you must all think I'm a bigger flake than usual, and now.....drumroll.....yes, I'm a-going away.  So what if the weather report predicts not just cold, not just rain, but, yes, thunderstorms, I'm going!  And after booking TEN surgeries today (for the next few weeks), which normally I would do that in about two or three weeks or more, my boss said, you're going away for TWO weeks?!?!?  NOOOOOO!!!!!  Yes, I said.  But what will happen, it'll be such a mess, he said.  Ah, don't worry, I said, they'll all do just fine and you'll be OK.  Ah ladies, is hard work really that good for us?  OK, I admit that, every morning when I take my walk before work, I do the gratitude thing, that I'm grateful that I CAN walk, that I can hear and see, that my daughter and her family are healthy and happy, and yes, that I have a job.  

So, I'll be away for a few weeks for what I think will be a very cool trip with a very dear friend who, I still wonder, might have been kidding when she said, "I'm gonna be 60 soon, I should take a fabulous trip....wanna go?"  Kidding or not, we're off for what I imagine will be a great time of friendship, meeting new people, laughing a lot, seeing some great sights, and some just doing a lot of nothing but watching the ocean go by.  Maybe all that hard work is gonna be worth it, after all!

Ah, Eva.

Sometimes ya just gotta be there.  That's my best explanation for the recent Wow meeting.  Delicious dinner, delightful conversations, lots of hugs and kisses, and my home is filled with beautiful women enjoying each other's laughter and stories.  Is there a adequate word for the pleasure women friends bring?

So, in addition to all that joy and fun, we had the pleasure of meeting Eva Nemeth of the "EVA Approach."  This is what her website (www.evamovement.com) says about her, ...."has been a physical therapy and wellness consultant for more than thirty years.  She began her professional career as an internationallly celebrated gymnast and later taught modern dance and rhythmic gymnastics.  Today, her hands-on workshops, seminars and speaking engagements have established her as one of the leading specialists in achieving physical and mental well-being.  Her EVA Approach starts with a radical assumption; though we walk, sit, stand, and lie down every day, we don't do these basic things in the right way.  The EVA Approach corrects lifetime habits that undermine us daily.  In one lesson, she imparts knowledge that leads to immediate results: her clients instantly feel better and look better." 

In person, Eva is a charming, fun, funny, and strong woman, determined and dedicated to encouraging and teaching her fellow humans to be healthier, both physically and emotionally. She taught us anatomy and physiology and posture exercises and proper positioning of the parts of our body as we move, but remember I said you had to be there?  Here's a photo experience of Eva, teaching us with tennis balls and toilet paper, yep, to do exercises that will bring wellness:

See the pic below, there's the toilet paper used for toe exercises, tennis balls to put under our feet and roll against our muscles, and one reluctant but surprisingly flexible Wowette helping demonstrate a stretch with the smiling Eva:

You sit all day at a computer?  Those back muscles tighten, altering our posture, so put your hands against the wall and get someone to pound hard on either side of your spine with their fingers and you'll be able to breathe better.  We did it to each other and it worked.  Amazing. Just gotta convince my co-workers......

I can't fully understand or explain Eva's theories, so you can go to her website and sign up for a seminar or a (very reasonable) private lesson to find out for yourself.  Per Eva, our pain and tension are symptoms, and sometimes she finds that negative experiences in our childhood result in the pain in our adult bodies, so she doesn't just teach exercises but helps us find out reasons for our physical distress.  She said things like, "Feet have eyes that talk to our brains," and that, to be healthy, we need to "eat, sleep, touch, and be still."   Yes, we had fun and we laughed, but we were enraptured by her teachings.  I don't think I'll ever forget when she stopped teaching to the group and looked up into the teary eyes of one of our daughters, who is very tall and shared her angst about her height and hearing Eva say, as best as I can remember, "You are beautiful, you are tall, you must own this beauty.  No one else is you, you must walk proudly."  Eva didn't stop telling her that she was beautiful until I think that the lovely young woman started to believe it herself.  Eva said that we must love our bodies, tall or fat or skinny or short, that we can't be walking around all day with someone we don't like.  She asked us to take two minutes a day to stop and appreciate our bodies, to wrap our arms around ourselves, to consciously acknowledge our presence in our bodies.

For sure, I am standing more tall, sitting with less pain, and walking farther and more joyfully.  And, in the few weeks since meeting Eva, I am much more accepting of myself, much quicker to forgive my errors, and much less anxious.  I told you that you had to be there!  Call her, take a class, participate in the magic that is Eva.  You'll never be the same.

Here's the happy Wowettes surrounding the lovely Eva.  None of us wanted to let her go.