Travels to India to Become a Yoga Instructor

Every year my mom puts together this really adorable, captioned photo montage to send to everyone in the phone book with her Christmas cards. She does a really nice job with it and includes pictures of all the kids, grandkids and disgustingly happy pictures of her and her husband. I know I'm not the only one who loves getting them.

I received mine in the mail today and started at the top with photos of all five grandkids belonging to my brother and step brothers. They’re all so smiley and sweet, it hurts I miss them so much. There are great snaps of their growing families and new houses, family members visiting mom out in Utah and of her husband's softball team. There are captions with all the photos: 

“Martin and family hiking the Provo River.”

“Jan's dad visits in Utah.”

“Mike still playing softball.”

“Bruno and Beth's new home.”

I get to my own year in review which takes up the real estate at the bottom left corner with a photo of Cape Kiwanda in Oregon and a caption that says:

“Seaside, OR.”

There’s also a stunning (if I do say so) photo of me taken by my photographer friend Camilla and a picture of me meditating by an ocean in India. My caption reads: 

“Kristin moves to Seaside, Oregon and travels to India to become a yoga instructor." 

Aside from the photo of Cape Kiwanda, a very accurate caption.

"Moves to Seaside, Oregon and travels to India to become a yoga instructor."

I posted the montage on the refrigerator and kept catching myself sneaking glances at my corner while I made dinner.

“Moves to Seaside, Oregon and travels to India to become a yoga instructor."

Grandpa will be so proud. Although completely true, in my mind, the caption is going a little more like this,

“Gives up a successful, lucrative, decade long career in LA, sells her car, her home and most of her worldly possessions, moves to a small town in the middle of nowhere, bartends at the beach, works at Rite Aid, quits Rite Aid, takes an assistant job at a (very) local magazine and spends more time on the bar stool at the local pub than on her couch. Oh, and went to India for a few weeks to learn to be a yoga teacher.” 

I guess my mom would have made a great editor. This is also why I don't send Christmas card letters.

So I stood there in the kitchen contemplating my caption as I stirred and stirred my cream of wild rice and mushroom soup. I’d had a wonderful morning yoga class full of inspiring students, a fantastic few days at the magazine, was making an awesome dinner, listening to my favorite music and feeling all-around content and happy with my life. Meanwhile, I kept repeating the caption over and over again in my head. Not in a judgmental way, just listening to how it sounded, this description of my new life; the way all my mom's friends and our family will see it on the bottom left corner.

“Kristin moves to Seaside, Oregon and travels to India to become a yoga instructor."

And actually, I'm quite proud. I'm satisfied that's the way I'll come off to them this year. Because I worked damn hard to get here; it's been the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done to be here on the Oregon coast, passing my days and making my meager living as a writer and yoga teacher. In fact, maybe I'll hire my mom as my editor....