What an unusual rentrée (back-to-school). And that’s being polite. Both children at new schools – Tana moving up to lycée after passing his Brevet with a Mention Assez Bien and India moving to Marciac collège in search of tolerance, kindness, and harder school work – and not a word from either establishment before the first day. Really, no one knew anything. Apart from what time the children needed to be there.

It was a similar situation for my yoga classes. Would I be able to use the rooms? How many people would be allowed per class? Would we have to wear masks? Would I have to clean all the rooms before and after use?

In an effort to avoid frustration, I found myself constantly reminding myself, my family and my students of the three As of yoga (and life) that I learned in my first teacher training – Adapt, Adjust, Accommodate.

And here we are, nearly a month in and both kids are super-happy and settled at their new schools. Tana is doing the sports option at the local lycée, which means he gets to do sport as part of his Baccalauréat, and he’s also playing in the front row for Maubourguet rugby club, which he loves. He’s finding new friends, learning to live with old enemies and standing steady in his regained confidence, gifted to us by the virus Corona. India is loving her new school, where she gets loads more homework and no one bats an eyelid at her undercut, earrings and awesomely weird dress sense. She’s doing dog agility with Minty, riding (of course) and twice a week kicking butt in Krav Maga (Israeli self defence) at our beloved martial arts school.

Chris is still working flat out on pools but is looking forward to closing them all and getting stuck back into work here, finishing the yoga studio and starting on the chillout space upstairs. I’m back teaching full-time, more classes than before as numbers are limited, but very pleased that the vast majority of people have come back, and I have a steady trickle of newbies. We’re doing full-contact karate again after taking a year off for Lyme disease, and we’re determined to get our black belts this year. We’re also making lots of music, with friends and rehearsing with our band, The ZamZams. I’m talking about Lyme disease in the past, having done A LOT of work on myself during lockdown – I’d call it a full cellular and emotional detox. I still get the odd symptom but choose not to let them rule me. And it seems to be working thus far.

It is undeniably a strange time. We are very fortunate here to be protected from the worst of it but we still feel the effects. The most obvious is the wearing of masks and the children have to wear one at school all day. I am not convinced that wearing a mask is necessary for most people but I do it when I am asked to, and take it off at all other times. No one really knows what is going on and what to do for the best. There is a lot of fear and mistrust and that, in my opinion, is the biggest danger. So I will be focusing on getting steady, breathing, letting go of fear and tension, and being kind. Being kind to myself, to everyone I know and also to everyone I don’t know. Big changes are afoot and this is a good way to deal with any change.

Filed under: Happy Coulson

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