For Those Who Have Moved
We just got back from visiting close friends in Miami.
They moved there after the pandemic, after more than a decade in New York City, never imagining life anywhere else. It got me thinking about moving, and about home, and how winding that road has been.
Coming home from a trip looks different for my family these days. This one involved a night flight, a midnight airport hotel, a gift shop snack run for my 9 year old, a few hours of sleep, and a two-hour drive through the countryside.
Somewhere on that drive, I realized something surprising and grounding.
For the first time since moving back to Illinois for a second time, it felt like I was driving home.
My whole childhood, I dreamed of being a New Yorker. I moved to New York young, chasing a life in dance and performance. I bounced from apartment to apartment, worked every gig I could find, and spent very little time wherever home happened to be.
I moved nine times during my first year in the city. I could fit everything I owned into a taxi. I loved the feeling of being pulled toward something bigger and kept my life simple enough to mobilize easily.
Eventually, I bought a tiny studio apartment, and life kept building. Then yoga and my career expanded my life in ways I never could have imagined.
What started as something I loved sharing with people became my life’s work. Together with a growing community, we created a place where people could come as they were, move, breathe, connect, and feel supported. It felt like a second home for thousands of us and, for many, more stable than our first.
Many cities, places, and people around the world also became home for me. I don’t feel like I travel for work. I’ve never felt like a tourist, and I’ve never been asked if I was one. I have a home in so many places, with so many people, and the gift of sharing something that helps people along the way.
Along the way, I met my husband. Along came a daughter, and life expanded.
I started craving, grieving, and missing something I couldn’t quite name. We moved. I was searching.
Brooklyn. Utah. Back to New York. Connecticut. Illinois.
Each move came with the belief that maybe this next place would be the one. Maybe, for me, there isn’t a one. Maybe there’s just life, what happens, what I can offer, and where that all takes me.
When my dad’s Parkinson’s disease progressed during the pandemic, we made the move I never saw coming: back to rural Illinois, close to family, nature, and roots.
A few years later, we tried leaving again. We thought maybe we belonged back on the East Coast.
I learned the same lesson once more.
The universe will keep giving you the same lesson until you learn it.
Home isn’t where you think you’re supposed to be.
Home is where you can be yourself.
These days, when people hear that I live in rural Illinois, I sometimes catch the look. The assumption that life only happens in certain places.
But life happens wherever people care for each other.
My home is with my family. My home is with our Strala community around the world and the folks who read my books or practiced yoga with me on YouTube when they were going through something hard in high school or college, or now. My home is with the people who show up for one another.
And these days, my home is also here, in rural Illinois.
It took a lot of moving to figure that out.
I’ll probably always be going places, from here to there to everywhere around our beautiful world, but now I know what it feels like to come home.
With my daughter, my mom, and my grandma yesterday. ❤️
Join us Online
Download the Strala Yoga app today and start feeling better with a new class every day.
This is your home studio.
Every day, a new practice is waiting for you.
Monday: Weights with Ease
Tuesday: Tai Chi
Wednesday: LIVE Gentle Yoga
Thursday: Weights with Ease
Friday: LIVE Energize Yoga
Saturday: Tai Chi Flow
Sunday: Restorative
Get comfortable, move in a way that feels supportive, notice how you feel, and let all the benefits soak in. We’re here together, one breath at a time.
Join us In Person
Effingham Illinois. Join us on Saturdays (when I’m in town) for an easy going Energize Yoga class. I’m so excited to be a part of this midwestern, artsy community. If you’re making a trip out of it, send me a note and I’ll send you all the good spots to visit! RSVP your space
Kansas City, MO. July 25-26. I’m so excited to offer our weekend intensive a little closer to home for so many in our community. Join us at Maya Yoga, July 25-26 for the Strala Weekend 20+Hour Intensive. RSVP your space here.
Amsterdam, Netherlands. September 19-20. It’s a homecoming for sure to Amsterdam. We’ve been a couple times a year for many years and this will be my first time back since the pandemic. It will be so good to see everyone. Amsterdam is a great city with great people to visit if you want to make a trip out of it! RSVP your space here.
Weekend of Softness, Metzingen, Germany, Sept 26-27. I’m joining longtime Strala Guide and partner studio owner Anna Rampf, to celebrate our community in a weekend of softness and connection. You’ll love Metzingen, it’s so nice. RSVP here.
