105.

While in Florida on this first stop of my book tour for Devotion, I’m staying with a friend I’ve known since eighth grade.  She and I had lost touch over the years, and we’ve had a lot to catch up on.  Husbands, children, dogs, careers,  winding paths through young adulthood and now, midlife.  As I write this, I’m sitting on her daughter’s bed in a room surrounded by cookbooks and yoga books–her two passions.  My friend has become a gifted yoga teacher, and yesterday, before my book panel event, she led me through a beautiful yoga practice.  What a full circle!  Judy and I played field hockey on the same team in high school.  (She was the team captain, I warmed the bench.)  We went to the same Bar and Bat-Mitzvahs, pool parties, proms and graduations.  And here we were–two mothers in our forties–doing yoga together by her pool, overlooking a Florida nature preserve.  Near the end of our practice, she gave me a new meditation tool, one I hadn’t heard before: think to yourself, breathe in, I am breathing in.  Breathe out, I am breathing out, said my high school friend.  So simple, so powerful.  I closed my eyes, heard the sound of rushing water, and felt the past and present touch hands.