Your ability to be extraordinary

"Le Cirque" by Georges Seurat

posted by Melissa Baumgart

"We each have the ability to be extraordinary as human beings."

This was one of the last quotes said on the documentary, "Circus."  It was said to sum up what the message of the circus is to the people that come to be entertained by it all.  I would agree.  I feel totally inspired by the circus; the trapeze artists, the jugglers, the tightrope walkers, the clowns.  They dedicate so much time and effort to their craft, and the payoff is incredible.

This is the same feeling that inspired and continues to inspire my commitment to this blog.  We get to try so many new things, so many things that in the past I would have only given lip service to.  I can just hear myself saying to others at a party or sitting around a dinner table, "Oh yeah, I totally want to try the trapeze.  We should take a class one day.  Let's do it."  And then sadly, it would never happen.  Either time or money or both would become my excuse.  

Now here I sit, nervously anticipating, yet again, another attempt at something I am terribly afraid of doing.  But still something that, at one point of time, I thought sounded exciting and fun.  Probably because it was a thought, not likely to manifest in any real tangible future.  Because of the blog, because of my promise to  myself to follow through with every month to the best of my ability, I will be hanging from a high trapeze in little more than three hours.

You never know what new thing might just be the thing that you want to give that kind of dedication to.  For me, it could be yoga.  Sure I leave, but so far, I always come back.  And when I am in that room, I (almost always) give it everything I have.  Or it could be circus arts, after our aerial class Amy and I were very excited about trying it again, maybe practicing and getting better and better.

Maybe you already are extraordinary.  Or maybe you are still searching for a way to surpass limitations you have chosen to put onto yourself in this lifetime.  I say join us.  Find a friend and start your own "Good Luck with That!"  Pick things that you are afraid of, that excite you, that inspire you, that fill you with joy.  The best part is that you'll be trying 6 new things you may have never thought of.  And what's more?  You might just LOVE one of them.  After all, Dina picked yoga!

If you take on the pledge to join us, please let us know.  We love to hear your stories too.

And now, off to worry about the trapeze and how high it is for the next 2 hours and 50 minutes.

For real, wish me luck!

-Melissa

Ramblings in the Air

By Amy Baranski

When I get nervous I don't talk much, I talk too much, and I get gas. All three of these things happened on the way to and during the warm up of our first aerial class at Emerald City Trapeze on Saturday. I was totally terrified. It turns out that being off the ground isn't all that scary, especially when you're only one foot off the ground, or at most three feet. You can practice the climbing methods, and some tricks in that distance. This is what makes the beginner classes accessible to everyone. Because you may not be strong enough to climb up ten or 15 feet into the air, but most likely you can step at least 12 inches.

The class started with approximately 30 minutes of warm up stretches that included cat-cows, bending to either side, hamstring stretches and shoulder stretches. Then we went downstairs where there were two silks hanging from the rafters. There were about eight of us in the class, so four students to each silk. You get to take turns, and that helps because you exert a lot of energy during each attempt.

One element that makes the class nerve racking is that you are with people you don't know, who have different physical capability--you know like better--than you. So it's hard to watch a student climb really high on the silk, seemingly effortlessly, and you struggle to take your second step.

But I did find it fun. I really liked it. We have one other class, a flying Trapeze class this month. I want to do more. It's challenging because the classes are expensive and I am traveling this weekend and next weekend and then there's the Thanksgiving holiday.

Melissa and I signed up for a Southside Booty Camp class (Free) that's near our apartment. We'll attend that on Tuesday. At least we can focus our time on strength building classes.

One of my challenges with this blog is the time commitment each month takes and the feeling like I'm not committing enough time or exerting enough effort to really learning something. With a job, family commitments, a social life (all things I adore) it's been hard to really focus. I need more discipline. Maybe I should check out a self help aisle or something...oh dear.