“Suffering is our own choice.”

Years ago, a woman walked into the studio curious about our shop in the back.

Our space opens right into the movement space so typically walk ins, bring me… anxiety.

But she was so sweet. Kind. Unassuming and genuinely curious. Our local made candles often bridge a gap for what new students often desire but fear…

Connection.

She stayed on our mailing list for years, opening every newsletter and piece of thought content, until finally she came back as student. In her 50’s.

Later that year she would be diagnosed with cancer. Chemo and radiation would change the terrain of her body, steal her mobility & waves of grief would mirror gratitude as doctors took her reproductive organs in replacement of her keeping her life.

I emailed her every month she wasn’t here.

To check in.

To remind her, even though everything around her was changing, the Thrive community was not.

Sometimes she answered, and some, she didn’t.

She came back.
And every single day I see her sign up for class, it reminds me of how connection saves us.

It wakes us the fuck up.
And it’s not always pretty. Or pleasurable.

We’ve read the books that remind us we are wired for it, but how many of us are actually out here, willingly seeking it?

What if it’s not what we hoped for? What if it’s disappointing, or hard, or fucking awesome?

Dude…What if it’s AWESOME.

My life work has been to show women where connections lives; not only only in themselves but within each other too.

This member is a daily reminder of truth.
That life is unfair and unexpected, and it steals shit from us, like our sex drive and our uteruses.

But fuck, sometimes suffering is our own choice.
Maybe vulnerability is going back to the things you love- that speak to you and move you- even after everything has changed.

That shit is brave AF and I’ve learned so much from this incredible human.

This is what I mean when I say Thrive is so much more then just a pole studio.