Earlier this weekend one of my longest-standing yoga students passed away. Some of you may have known Janice from the Monday 5:45 Vinyasa class that she currently attended, or the Saturday 10am Energy Flow class of several years back. She had been coming to The Yoga Room since I started teaching here in 2004.
I did not know Janice well outside of class, though I ran into her a couple of times walking on nature trails around the area with her dogs. What I did know about her, though, I really admired. (For one, she loved to spend time out in nature with her dogs! ;) For the past several years she had also been taking all kinds of adventurous trips around the world–on her own, with her mom or with groups of other women. I’m talking about Galapagos Islands, kayaking, dog-sledding in Alaska, safari-ing kinds of trips, ones that people say they’d always like to do some day, but then never get around to it. She also recently went back to school to get a degree in archaeology, a passion of hers, and would share details of archaeological digs at historical sites around our area.
Janice was an interesting, inspirational, adventurous woman. That she died of a brain aneurysm at the age of 52 is one of those completely unfair things in life. I’ve had a difficult time this past week processing this loss. It was just so strange to me to think that I would never see her in her favorite back corner by the cabinets again, or hear her hearty laugh. However, a day or two ago a sense of peace came over me about it. I am still deeply saddened by it but I know that, even though her life was cut too short, she lived it to the fullest. You really can’t ask for more than that. I know people always say it’s so cliche to think about ‘living your life to the fullest because you never know how much time you’ve got’ after someone passes away. But it’s not cliche. It’s a good reminder to all of us to find out and then do what really makes us happy while we can. Enjoy this great life you’ve been given, take advantage of opportunities that come your way, do what you love as much as you can and be adventurous. Live life fully!
Bon voyage, Janice. I know you are just on to your next adventure.
