 Dear Friends,
I made a big pot of lentil soup earlier this week with broth from my Thanksgiving turkey bones and lentils from my 25 pound bag of emergency lentils. Yes, you read that correctly, a 25 pound bag of emergency lentils. So, at the very beginning of the pandemic, I, like many of us across the world, didn’t know what was going to happen and had a certain level of stress due to that lack of perceived control. In that stress, I convinced myself that I needed to buy a 25 pound bag of lentils…because, well, dry lentils have a long shelf-life and the fear of food scarcity was real. Did I ever need said lentils? No, no I didn’t. They sat in my basement on a shelf, used when I would think about them, forgotten about a good deal of the time. And now, almost 5 years later, I can see the bottom of the bag…we are coming to the end of my era of emergency lentils. While I didn’t ever need said lentils, I have no regrets about purchasing them. They were a purchase that allowed me to feel a certain amount of relief and control in a time that felt very out of control and scary. My dear friend, if there are areas in your life right now that feel a little out of control and scary, I hope you can find pockets of relief amidst those times…even if said relief comes in the form of a 25 pound bag of lentils. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend! Love Krista
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 Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Gratitude makes things right.
-Melody Beattie  Dear Friends,
Yesterday, I was driving through the park as I was headed to a client's house. As I took a turn onto beach drive, the underbrush below the tall, bare trees was suddenly so stunning I felt like I had to stop…and with a few minutes of wiggle room in my schedule I got out of my car, wandered into said underbrush and for a few brief moments was instantly surrounded by color. It was like I wandered into some magical fairyland. We are coming into the week of Thanksgiving…and while I know holidays are, for some, a joy-filled time, I recognize for others they aren’t always the most joyful. Sometimes holidays contain stress and tension, sometimes it’s just a lot. But whatever your holiday experience is, whatever your holiday week looks like this year, I hope you can take some time to stop, take some time to see and notice the little things you can be grateful for…perhaps finding the color and the magic in your experience, even if it is for a brief moment in time. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend. I am so incredibly grateful for you. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
As some of you know, I moved this past weekend, yes, again. This time, with much excitement, to my permanent place…no more moving for the foreseeable future for me! I’ve set up three different studio spaces prior to this one…and one feature of all three prior spaces was me “fighting the light”. At various times in the day, the light would shine directly into my studio, and so it was always a battle to keep the light from coming in. Prior to my move last weekend, when I was thinking about which room to use for my bedroom and which room to use for my studio, I realized the bigger room in the house was on the back of the house, where I can potentially keep my blinds open all year long and get wonderful indirect sunlight all day, but never fight with the direct sunlight. As I’ve been thinking about this the past several days, as I’ve been enjoying looking at the trees outside my window as I’ve been teaching, I’ve been thinking about how those small annoyances are just that, they’re just small annoyances. And yet, those small annoyances sometimes add up, they sometimes have the power to eat away at us and create stress and irritation. Sometimes we have no choice but to keep moving forward even in those spaces of small annoyances…but I think there are times when we can think creatively to mitigate some of those small annoyances and create a little less stress and irritation in our lives. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Last Tuesday at twilight, after my son and I voted, we went for a walk in the woods. The world around us was getting dark and less clear and the colors more monotone throughout our meander as we strolled down the trail in the park. As in any election, for many, the change earlier this week was perhaps not what we wanted, and the anxiety of last week has not been assuaged. While I don’t pretend to have an answer, I think turning inward, focusing on our gratitude in a tangible way goes a long way. I think turning outward, and staying in our movement and our breath goes a long way also. They help us show kindness, love and respect to the world around us. They help us move through the world with more peace. They help us see the beauty in the world, in our lives. They help calm us. My dear friend, may we see the beauty in the world around us a little more this week. May we show up to our lives with a little more love, kindness and respect. May we be at peace. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Last weekend I meandered over to Shenandoah for a hike up to Mary’s Rock on a beautiful fall day. It was spectacular weather, and the drive and hike were just lovely. The leaves on my particular hike and in the hills surrounding were past their prime, settling into the dull colors of late fall. The following day I had an hour or so to kill in-between things, and decided to wander in Rock Creek for a bit. The leaves were brighter, more vibrant…they were in or maybe just past their peak of fall color. But one thing was apparent during both my walks. Change was unavoidable no matter where I happened to be. The deep green of summer was gone, replaced by the colors moving us into a different season. My friends, we are in the midst of changes that are hard. Change that perhaps makes us deeply anxious and uncomfortable…and there are times when we simply do not know what to do with that anxiety and discomfort. And while I don’t have any words that will be an absolute, I think staying in our breath, in our movement, getting out into the world and noticing and seeing the beauty around us even in the midst of our own anxiety and discomfort and sense of overwhelm, while it won’t solve the issues surrounding us, does help us individually, does have the ability to soothe. My dear friend, I hope you are able to get out and see the beauty in the world around you a little more this week, allowing that beauty to move through you and soothe you as you walk through this world. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I was re-reading my own blog post last week, the one where I talked about the movie Frozen and doing the next right thing. As I was reading it over, an area in my life was suddenly brought to the forefront of my mind. This particular area is an area where I needed to do the next right thing. Did I want to do it? No, I really didn’t. But it was something I ought to do even if it wasn’t something I wanted to do. So I did it, I did the thing. And, turns out, it didn’t solve my particular issue even in the slightest. But, as I have been thinking about that situation, and about doing the next right thing even though I didn’t want to, my mind has been coming back to the fact that doing the next right thing is not about the results, it’s not about the outcome…it’s about doing the correct thing even if we don’t get the results we want, even if it doesn’t solve the issue and fix the glitch and get us the outcome we were hoping for. Sometimes that’s deeply frustrating, sometimes the outcome is really hard to let go of…and even so, even when it’s hard and frustrating I think we still have to show up and do the next right thing. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
OK, Disney’s Frozen. Yes, yes, I’m a little late to the game, I know, I know…but hear me out. Last weekend I was babysitting my niece and nephew and we decided to have a “frozen” marathon. My kids were a bit too old when the movies came out, so I missed them entirely. And, let me tell you my friend, yes, they were adorable…but they also really hit. So I’m sitting here, cuddling on the couch in my sister's basement with my nephew and niece, tearing up with these adorably touching movies and having a fabulous time…and this song comes on. Somewhere in the middle of the second movie, when one of the heroines is in the depths of despair without any knowledge of how she’s going to make it through, she bursts into song...as one does... “I follow you around, I always have But you've gone to a place I cannot find This grief has a gravity, it pulls me down But a tiny voice whispers in my mind ‘You are lost, hope is gone But you must go on And do the next right thing’” And isn’t that the truth, my friend. Yes, sometimes hope is gone and we simply can’t see if or even how we can do the best thing…and yet, even in the darkest of times, I think there is space where we can see the “next right thing”. Maybe we don’t know if it’s the best, maybe we don’t know how it will turn out…but we can know it’s something, we can act with good intentions even if we might not know the outcome of said intentions. My dear friend, if you’re in the middle of not quite knowing what the best thing is, I hope you can stop, take a deep breath, and do the next right thing. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
A couple of weekends ago at our retreat in Harper’s Ferry, I did something I’ve never done before. I had a couple of lovely ladies come out and teach a “paint night” during our retreat. 15 of us gathered around the tables in front of adorable little easels with plates of paint and different sized paint brushes in front of us…13 of us never having done anything like this before and, let’s be honest, most of us just plain doubtful of our ability to create art. Our leader Emily guided us through our painting, walking with us every step of the way as we created our paintings, slowing down when needed, going over steps again when needed. And oh my goodness, they all turned out wonderfully. All of us created something beautiful, with overarching similarities, but with unique differences in each of our creations. I was not the only one who had doubts about my own artistic abilities that night, but with a willingness to try something new despite doubting our own abilities, we all ended up creating something beautiful, unique, and our own. My dear friend, I hope when the opportunities arise, we take the chance, and perhaps try something new, even if we might have doubts about our own abilities. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
This past weekend I was on retreat with 15 other wonderful humans…and at the beginning of our retreat I asked all of us to think of and sit with an intention. The phrase that came into my head as I sat there was “I am strong and independent, I can do this on my own”. So, you know last week when I was talking about life being unclear, to be determined, and, subsequently, a hard place to sit in? Well, not but a few hours after I wrote that blog post did life start shifting and changing…at a breakneck pace. Now, these changes, they’re still not fully out of that TBD land, but they are certainly more clear then they were last week…and they certainly require me to be strong and independent, and willing to do things on my own. All good, all exciting, all needed changes…but man, this past week and change has been a LOT. Sometimes we’re stuck in that uncomfortable, unclear, TBD land…and other times the ground is shifting under our feet so quickly that we don’t quite know what to do with ourselves. Sometimes these changes are good and needed and important…but even the good, needed and important changes can still be scary and overwhelming. My dear friend, if you are in the midst of change, I hope you can find your grounding and lean into the ride. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
A few years ago my boys and I went to this place called Brookside gardens for the Christmas light show…we wandered through the show, and then wandered away from the show…turns out the best time we had was when we meandered through the rest of the gardens in the dark, the world around us unclear and thick with fog and the trees absolutely stunning. Earlier this week, I wrote this title down…not because I planned on writing my blog on it, but because I didn’t know what I was writing about this week, and I needed a placeholder while I worked on other aspects of my newsletter. And yet, as days turned over, the title just seemed correct. TBD. To be determined. I don’t know about you, but I feel like a sizable number of areas in my life feel a bit TBD right now…and, let’s be honest, it’s not a particularly cozy place to sit in, at least not for me. And yet, there are times when we all must sit in the space of TBD, because we don’t have sure footing all the time, we can’t know what’s next every second of every day. There are simply times when life is sometimes very unclear. And, my friends, sometimes the unclear can be beautiful, sometimes the unclear can be deeply beneficial to our own growth, sometimes the unclear can be totally and absolutely frustrating…and there are times when it’s simply a mixture of all three. My dear friend, if you’re in a place of unclear, I hope you can find the beauty and benefit in it, and I hope you can breathe through the frustrating, knowing you won’t stay there forever. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I have this adorable little viking guy who lives right behind my cameras on the shelf in my studio. His heart on his hat creates a perfect focal point for me to stare at when I’m teaching balancing poses. He makes me smile whenever I see him. My little viking guy is not just practical though…he’s also a daily reminder of connection, community, and the richness we can experience when we’re willing to stay in relationship with others even in the midst of change. My little guy came from our retreat last year in Iceland, a week filled with amazing adventures, fun, connection and beauty…but, more importantly, my little guy was purchased for me for my birthday by one of my closest friends, my bonus mom, who happens to be my ex’s mom. I recognize it’s not always normal to stay in relationship with your former in-law family, but I consider it an unequivocal joy in my life that I have been able to stay in close relationship with my bonus family…I absolutely adore them and would never want to give those relationships up if I did not have to…and I am so abundantly grateful that they are also willing to put in the work to stay in relationship with me in the midst of change. We don’t always have the option of staying in relationship with those in our lives when our primary relationships change, and I acknowledge that those choices are also not always up to us. And I fully recognize there are deep wounds we might be contending with that might make continuing in certain relationships unhealthy and detrimental to ourselves. But, I think, when keeping relationships is healthy and good for us, even if the logistics might be a little more complicated, they can end up giving us a richer and fuller life all around. I hope, this week and into the future, we can all be a little more willing to put in the work to stay in and deepen the relationships around us. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
As you might know, it’s been a busy summer over here. As you also might know, I absolutely adore wandering our woods here in DC…one of the unfortunate ramifications of a slammed summer has been a severe lack of wandering through said woods. Last week a former yoga hikes student reached out to me, telling me she had some friends who were interested, and asking if yoga hikes were something I still led. While I typically don’t these days, I had a free morning one day last weekend, so we arranged a yoga hike. And oh my goodness, my friends. I would not have wandered had there not been a reason, I simply didn’t have time in my weekend…and yet, that wandering was exactly what I needed. There are times when we feel like we simply don’t have time to do anything extra in our lives…and that might absolutely be true, but there are times when making a little time for wandering even in the midst of the non-stop busy might be exactly what we need. I hope, this week, perhaps you find a little spaciousness, a little time for wandering even if life feels non-stop. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  I keep my dirt on the surface so you don't gotta dig
The people that make me nervous try to hide all their sins And I've got no reason to cover my tracks The best part of learning is just loving where you're at So love where you're at, yeah love where you're at And keep your dirt on the surface and just love where you're at Dear Friends, A few days ago a friend and I were at the 9:30 club seeing one of my favorite soul-filled artists, Allen Stone…he not only makes, in my opinion, amazing music, but he just seems like such a genuinely good guy with such a caring and friendly vibe about him. It was a fun, light-hearted and fantastic show. One of my favorite songs has the lyrics I’ve written above…these lyrics…simple, and yet profound…implore us to ”just love where you’re at” without shame, without hiding, simply loving ourselves right here and right now. Loving ourselves in the here and now doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to grow and change, it doesn’t mean we can’t ever shift from where we are and grow into something new. Even so, I think it does mean seeing the beauty and validity in ourselves in the here and now. I think it does mean accepting ourselves as we are, even if there are ways we might want to shift and change in the future. My dear friend, it is my deep hope that we can all love where we’re at in the here and now this week. I hope you have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
As many of you know, this past week I moved out of my house in DC, and moved into an apartment where I’ll be staying for the next few months while figuring out the next steps in life. The apartment I’m in has pretty thick carpet on the floor, and I didn’t want to move on the carpet for hours a day, so off I went to Home Depot to “create” a studio for myself. My first attempt failed…turns out, laminate planks over carpet simply doesn’t work when it comes to stability and staying together…so after a very unstable day of classes, back I went to Home Depot to return my first attempt and get my next. My next attempt was a sheet of plywood and a roll of wood-grain laminate…and let me tell you, I miss my boys, but I really missed my boys when carrying a sheet of plywood by myself. Even so, I was successful at this attempt, I was successful at getting the plywood on my car and ratcheting it down with compression straps with both gratitude for the guy who helped me put it on my car, and only mild annoyance about the same guy hovering around me to see if I could actually attach it to my car safely. I was successful at getting said plywood from my car into my apartment (and was so very grateful for my own strong and capable body while doing so). And, most importantly, I really like the way my studio turned out, it feels stable and good and I love the way it looks. As I’ve been in my studio the past couple of days though, I can’t help but think how my studio set-up parallels something that I think we all struggle with. We all live our own experiences, we all deeply see our own hardships…but sometimes, I think, we see others' lives from outsiders perspectives, and we assume their lives are better than our own, they’re happier, they’re more fulfilled, they have fewer problems. And granted, that might be the case…but oftentimes, like with my studio, there’s more than what we can see. I wonder how it might feel if, when we inevitably start assuming others’ lives are easier than our own, we take a step back and recognize that there might just be more than meets the eye. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
We are barreling towards that time of year, the time of year of life transitions. Transitions in season, in weather are coming soon to tangibly mark this change, but for many, transitions into a new grade, or a different time of life are imminent. Many of my peers, like me, are dropping their kids off at college either for the first time, or for a new year. This time of year is a time of change for many. Oftentimes transitions are hard. They can fill us with uncertainty, with an amount of insecurity, with a deep lack of grounding. Some transitions are filled with grief and sadness that we have to work through and process. And then there are many transitions that are lifegiving and full of excitement. But no matter the emotion surrounding said transition, all represent an amount of unavoidable change and a life that looks and feels different then it did before. I wonder how it might feel if, in the midst of those real, tangible transitions that we all inevitably have, if we’re really able to lean into the spaces in life that feel grounded, that feel secure, that feel stable. What might that grounded space look like to each of us, what might it feel like as we walk through those times of uncertainty and change? Each of us will have a different answer to what that grounding might look like and feel like, but I think there is deep benefit to be had by being willing to look at what that grounding, that stability, that steadiness might look like to us individually and being willing to find said grounding in our own lives and experiences. I hope you have an amazingly grounded week, my friends. Love Krista  The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. Wendell Berry  Dear Friends,
I recall a day, several years ago now, when I was sitting by a creek. It was fall and the leaves on a tree across from me were falling from said tree and gently traveling to the water below. I recall I was struggling with some emotions that day, and I think I was feeling a bit stuck, but I’m honestly fuzzy on the specifics. As I sat there, I was mesmerized by the leaves as the tree released them and they swooped down, some fast, some slow…all traveling toward the water...all on some sort of new journey. The phrase “and intentional letting go” has yet again stuck with me this past week as I prepare both mentally and physically not only to move myself, but in that same weekend a few weekends from now, move both my boys to their respective colleges. I’ve been thinking about this new phase of life I am entering with regards to intentionally letting go. There are times throughout our lives, big and small situations, when the right thing to do in said situation is to hold on and walk through, and there are times in life when the right thing to do, or perhaps the only choice we have, is to let go, to find new, to start on a different journey. That new journey is not always easy, and sometimes is downright scary, but I think, with intention, purpose, kindness and understanding towards ourselves and those around us, we can strongly walk and forge our way through new paths and on new journeys, even if they might be scary. I hope, this week, you feel supported on whatever journey you might find yourself on. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
This past weekend I spent a few days with some dear friends at the beach. Saturday morning I took a long walk on the beach by myself, enjoying the smell of the ocean, the repetitive motion of the waves, and the sounds filling my ears. Last week I ended my post with the phrase “an intentional letting go”, and, turns out, that phrase has stuck with me personally and has continued to inform my life this past week. While I was chatting with a student last week, something she said gave me pause and allowed me to realize and internalize something. I realized that I had been taking sole ownership of some deep seated stress that doesn’t belong solely to me. It was a small, inconsequential turn of phrase she said, and yet it drastically changed how I was thinking and feeling about this space and time I am in. As a result of that conversation, I have been working on intentionally letting go of the ownership of said stress. Now, letting go of ownership doesn’t mean my responsibilities have suddenly gone away surrounding the stress…I still have to show up and work hard and fulfill my part, that hasn’t changed, but it’s not just on me. As I was walking along the beach last weekend, I was marveling at how a shift in my thought process could make such a difference in my body and my mind. Yes, I have the same amount of responsibilities, but the weight of the situation is so much less. I hope this week we can all spend a little more time intentionally letting go of those areas in life we need to let go of. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
One morning, earlier this week, I was sitting under the awning of our vacation cottage while my boys still slept, enjoying the view of the canal next to me, the rain that was singing to me as I sat, and the cup of coffee in my hand. As I watched the rain fall, a plant across from me caught my eye and entranced me for quite some time. The particular leaf on this plant that caught my eye was slightly bowl-shaped, and would collect the rain water as it fell. The rain water made a beautiful magnification of the star shape in the middle of the plant as it collected. The plant would gather the water, and then at a certain point when it got too heavy would lean over and let said water drop to the earth. The plant wasn’t crushed by the weight of the water, when it got to be too much, it simply leaned over and released the water's weight. As I watched the dance of the water and the plant, I was thinking about how it might feel if we all took a little lesson from this plant. Certainly, we will never be able to release all of our responsibilities when they get to be too much, but how might it feel if, when we inevitably gather too much in our lives, we simply let go of some of those responsibilities instead of allowing them to build until we are crushed under the weight of them. Perhaps we can turn that tipping point in our lives into an intentional letting go. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista |
Hi, I'm Krista!Krista Mason is a movement instructor based in Washington DC. She founded an online strength, yoga and movement studio, teaches group classes, hosts both local and overseas retreats, hangs out with private clients, and absolutely loves the work she gets to do. Archives
December 2024
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