Hunched over, eyes narrowed, shoulders locked tight, locked jaw, brow frowning, focus intense, I was emanating pretty strong ‘leave me alone’ vibes to my children. What was this mystery I was grappling with? I am almost too ashamed to say. But I was roasting a chicken.
I pride myself on my cooking but 17 years of vegetarianism during my 20’s and 30’s have left huge holes in my skill set. At the start 2015 I decided to roast my first chook. 15 months later I actually got around to doing it. The weekend before, my sister effortlessly demoed it for me while I gossiped at her kitchen counter. It’s an ‘easy dinner’ she said and I was sold. The idea of extra time to play with my daughters close to dinner time felt great. My sister’s result: steaming soft and succulent where you want it, perfect crispy brown crunch to salivate over (Hint: my sister puts yoghurt in the stuffing which rocks!!)
So I decide to ‘improve’ on that with a Maggie Beer recipe and thus turn a chook into an intricately timed science project.
I tell my husband there will be roast chook tonight. Just like Homer Simpson going ga ga over bacon, he smiles gooily and tells me that means ‘home’ for him. (I wonder just where he has been living these past eight years.) Pressure on, I get an early start. Deflecting kids needing help with buttons, I am roasting hazelnuts and frying bacon for the stuffing straight after doing the school lunches. I don’t have a runsheet because it’s swirling around and around in my head. I head off to teach, knowing I can return to get the oven on before school pick up. Various stages follow, intermingled with different kiddie pick ups and various lengths of waits. It will all be perfectly ready for kids dinner time. The easy dinner was all getting a bit much with the vegies. A couple of people who phoned while I was at the helm got a very tense Christina on the line and then helpfully told me they roast a chook every week.
Finally, dinner time arrived. It looked crispy and smelt good. But essentially it was still a raw meat on a kids plate. I fried some meat off for the kids. Demoralised and exhausted, I retired to the bedroom and left my husband to heat, bake, test and tweak so we could finally eat two hours later.
I failed the fowl. How on earth could I be beaten by a bird?
I can run a business, a family, and usually, a kitchen. For heaven’s sake, I can give birth powered by a single Panadol! All this has certainly made me think about those little things everyone else does so effortlessly, that you have somehow managed to avoid. I’ve made a list of mini triumphs. Things you fear other people might snicker at (ie I figured out how to take a screenshot on my computer) but once conquered make you feel great. Like learning to drive a car, if you leave some things too late, they loom larger and feel scarier.
What else has been scaring me? Well, for months now I have been putting off raising prices at the studio.
Our prices have been under market rate for quite a while. Every other studio without exception had been charging more for a long time. We are adding new classes to our timetable to provide you with more options. And yes, of course creating a more spacious and stunning new practice space did mean digging deep. And I wanted to keep prices as low as possible for full time students so they can get a healthy start to adult life. But it has felt scary to ask so I have been wrestling with the inevitable.
Then I read this quote by Makeda which resonated:
Courage doesn’t always roar. Brave doesn’t always come stomping into the room loudly. Sometimes, often times, brave is just showing up. Sometimes, often times, courage is taking a risk by whispering your truth because you can’t say it too loudly right now. Sometimes, oftentimes, brave and courage show up in the small things not the big things. You are braver than you think you are.
So, I have made the changes and we promise to keep offering premium classes but without that pricetag. You can see new prices are here . If you are a student do check out our great student rate deals. You will see our 5 and 10 class passes are consolidated into an 8 class pass (over an extra- 9th – week by popular request).
As part of our personal growth we owe it to ourselves to feel our fear and embrace our vulnerability. Then we can all get on and create extraordinary things. And thank you, as all this allows me to continue in my passion of creating meaningful yoga, playful Pilates and beautiful barre experiences where my students can connect with their own bodies and expand beyond their preconceived limitations and light the spark of positivity and joy in their lives.
Thanks for your understanding dear people.
- To your dreams,
Christina