10/19/16
I am not sure why I started these planned interviews for my blog site. But do know why I picked Kathryn to start. Her vibrancy at the front desk of the yoga studio makes my class better and adds to my day. She is perennially friendly, competent and helpful. In life it seems that the people behind the scene often make the most difference but often get overlooked.
The interview takes place on a sunny fall day at my home in Asheville with my Boston Terrier milling around curiously wondering what is going on this morning.
Questions:
Before the interview you had mentioned Tim and plans with him when we were trying to set a time up to meet.
Tim’s your boyfriend? What is he like?
Yes, I don’t know how to describe Tim. You have met Tim, haven’t you? He’s been to the studio before. He lives in Montana half the year and here the other half of the year. He changes his appearance each time he comes back. He might shave his head or have long hair and a straggly beard when he returns home. He comes back to Asheville for the summer working as a raft guide and in the winter he’s in Montana working in a pizza place.
He shapeshifts?
In appearance yes, but he is pretty consistent in his personality.
It sounds like he has a lot of energy!
Yes
Are you energetic?
No! My dimmer switch goes up and down all day. (laugh) (It changes) in terms of where I am in the day and my interactions.
Do you have kids?
No. My friend once said that the world needs people who don’t have kids because they receive kids in a different and sweet adoring way. She reassured me that it’s ok if you don’t have kids. Isn’t that a really beautiful thing to say?
I love that.
And that is how I feel about your dog too. (I don’t have a dog either). (laugh)
Tell me a little about yourself?
That’s a hard question. Just a little bit. I don’t know. (Pause)
Who are you?
I guess everything I say is very telling on how I identify with my life and who I am. (pause) A 35 year old yogi who has moved to Asheville which I refer to as Never Neverland. To be near like minded people. To heal and to feel safe. Um..yeah…yeah
How did you get into yoga?
The University of Florida offered free classes and I had a roommate who brought me to one. I had a lot of back pain that was not quite diagnosed at the time and I think a doctor or maybe a massage therapist encouraged me to do yoga. I remember being in so much pain afterwards. My legs hurt. I was probably in tears that evening we had no idea what was going on with my spinal cord or the fact that I had a condition at all back then.
Tell me about that?
So I have AVM in my spinal cord. Arteries and veins that are tangled up in little knots. They are inside of it. Inside of the spinal cord. Inside of the dura. It usually occurs in the brain but I have it in the spinal cord. Making it challenging to remove, impossible really to take out.
When were you diagnosed (with AVM)?
Spring of 2006. Ten years ago. It ruptured after dinner one night. I was having stroke like symptoms and couldn’t move my neck. I started vomiting. Went to the Emergency room. (laughs) It wasn’t a subtle diagnosis.
How did life change on all domains from that point forward?
Big things happened. Procedures that I received took my chronic pain away that I was experiencing since I was 17. I was finally able to feel free and move my body. Yeah, so. The quality of life improved dramatically. I had validation for what I had been complaining about for all those years. I had answers. Even my grandmother who is a nurse still says, I can’t believe that that was happening after all those years when you were complaining. We thought you were just a fussy child.
But that had started when I was 17 until I was 25. I just didn’t feel heard. The doctors didn’t take me seriously and it was kind of an indication that we are responsible for our health and for speaking up.
But you did?
Yeah, yeah I did. I think maybe I could have more? If I demanded going to a specialist. If I had demanded imaging or MRI or something. But at the same time I am happy that things unfolded the way they did.
It is hard to demand these things when you are 17 or 23 or even 25 isn’t it?
Yes, I guess it is. So that is how I got into yoga. Just trying. People said you should do yoga, you have sciatica. You should do this, you should do this. I kept going to yoga class for a year or two. Even though it was so painful. So the day of the hemorrhage. I was probably at a yoga class that morning.
It must have been scary?
I was hospitalized and for two weeks was unaware of what was going on. My parents flew in. My dad said it was the worst day of his life. I was out of it. I had tubes in me and on pain meds. It wasn’t until I got home that I started freaking out. Where as the rest of the family, my boyfriend it was a sigh of relief thank God she is home. Those two weeks were hell for them but I was on a dilaudid drip so (I) was like 'Oh, I don’t care.' So that was challenging (when I got home) waking up in the fog like holy shit what just happened!? But my friends were saying, ‘Oh but you should be so grateful. You were so lucky.’ That being the story like a year or longer after. I was pretty depressed and shaken. I was in therapy trying to figure it out. I was too much in my head about it. Like not being stuck and so heavy after would have been better (for me).
When did you come to Asheville?
Six years ago.
A year after I came here?
Yeah.
Didn’t you car get broken into at that time?
Yes. My friend’s car. My purse was stolen
I remember that. Weren’t you on the parkway?
Yes, Bent Creek.
I was at the studio that night and was so impressed that you were upbeat and in a good mood the day your car was broken into. You were talking about how someone broke into your car (your friend’s car) and had stolen your purse.
Yes, my keys were in the car. It was a snowy night and the landlords weren’t answering the phone. I came to yoga and I had my phone next to my mat because I had nowhere else to go. Yeah maybe that was the night I met you or the next day?
I don’t know if that was the day I met you but it was the day I remember meeting you. I was so impressed by your attitude.
Translating to what goes on in my body especially after the last couple of years. Everything is so relative in terms of what is important and what is so scary. I was like oh well I need to change my bank account and get a spare keys.
That is what I remember, you were so upbeat and “oh well”.
Yeah, and a few weeks later that is when the identity theft started happening from that situation.
You had identity theft?
Yeah, the woman had stolen my ID, which is what they were really after. They knew I banked at Bank of America and even though I had gotten all new account numbers and cards they apparently had this thorough scheme of wigs and hats and would go to the furthest drive-through outside at the bank and pretend to be whosever ID that they had and cash bad checks against their accounts. And so, yeah, I did get pretty pissed about that. BOA froze my account for a couple weeks I had no access to any of my funds. She would dress up like me and write bad checks. That is when I started to get pissed.
Is she in jail?
I think so. I didn’t keep up with what happened but since it was my girlfriend’s car and it was in her name she was contacted with all the updates when they finally caught them a couple of months later.
What is your most memorable moment in yoga?
Hmmm There is so many…pause. I think when I started really taking savasana as a pose and really started to pay attention to what words that teachers would use during savasana or to get you into it. And um…and really practicing dying. Shala (a yoga teacher at AYC) once said, “What else can you release right now.” When I am in savasana I often hear that in my head.
What do you do? What is your job?
Technically I am a receptionist. I often equate AYC as an airport (laughs). Guiding the masses. Yeah, I check people into class and figure out what packages and memberships would be best for them. I make sure that the teachers are ok and have everything that they need. I like to think that I am responsible for the energy in the studio and in the lobby.
What do you like best about your job?
The people! The students that I get to see everyday. I feel super fortunate after having three surgeries in two years. Being able to come back to work and actually feel like my job was helping me get better and heal because of the faces I get to see everyday.
Tell me about the person at the studio, doesn’t have to be a teacher but can be, that you admire most? What qualities or characteristics do you admire?
I would say it is probably Sierra (yoga teacher). Her dedication to her practice, to service. To serving other people. Her students. To always re-orienting everything to positivity and light while being direct and an activist. She does her practice without even questioning the option of practicing that day. An example, during a five day training she had an optional sadhana for her students at 430a. She woke up at 230a to drive into Asheville, to lead this optional sit. Taught all day, then stayed to teach her 7pm class and I said, “Now you get to go to bed? And she said, no I have to do my practice because I didn’t get to do it this morning. I said (to her) can’t you take a day off. Oh but I am doing a 90 day thing (and part of it is a daily practice). The way she said it didn’t make it seem like an unhealthy relationship with her practice. No it is just one day out of my life that I have to do this insane day. But to me it showed how dedicated she is to her students. She didn’t have to teach a 7pm class she could have gotten a sub for class, she didn’t have to offer a 430a optional sadhana. She could have stayed at my house. I told her (stay with me). But she said if I stayed over and wasn’t able to sleep…Yeah. I get that, I get that.
If you were going to right now today or in the last couple of weeks pick an archetype what would it be?
Sometimes I think I am just a messenger.
(Oscar my dog comes over and sits next to Kathryn)
Hello lovely! Did you have a nice nap?
So tell me about messenger? What does that mean?
I don’t feel like I am a nomad but just like I am passing on information that I have received or I have learned.
Lessons you have learned. Like lessons that you have learned during this lifetime or that you have come into the world with.
I suppose both.
So with every archetype there is a shadow? For you what is it?
I suppose it is the waiting…for when I am called to be useful
Give me an example of how you are useful?
I have friends who are trained therapists and they come to me when they are having a hard time processing. I feel so honored.
Yes, I can see this and you can make your point with just a few words.
What were you like as a little kid?
Outgoing, articulate. My mom says that I was talking when I was one. Sharp, always scored high on tests but could never sit down long enough to do homework. (laughs) They had to put me in a different pre-school because I wouldn’t nap.
So tell me more about Tim your boyfriend.
Well I met him at a friends wedding. He was officiating.
So he’s verbal?
No (laughs). He was a practicing attorney in the state that they lived in.
What do you like most about Tim?
He’s been my best teacher. I have had to be super clear with what I want with him. Which hasn’t always been easy (for me). He told me that he doesn’t easily read emotions ‘so if you need me to know something you have to tell me.’
Don’t you think those words are portable to all relationships?
I suppose so (laughs)
Who annoys you most?
Ghosts from my past. People who remind me of my hometown and act entitled. Not grateful. Cannot recognize what they have. Or the pseudo spiritual people. Where arrogance meets spirituality. Isn’t yoga all good yoga?” “We have to start somewhere.”
Yes
Are you a yoga teacher?
I started teaching before I trained. I worked for a non profit in Florida (through the University) and taught yoga there until they lost funding. Then I came to AVL and went through teacher training at AYC. I didn’t need to teach though, there are so many great teachers here.
AYC is a very successful studio. What do you credit its success to?
Super organic growth. Never had a plan for it. Teachers just showing up and people showing up and then demanding teacher training.
What advice would you give someone trying to break into the business or open a studio?
Don’t quit your day job. (laughs) A local teacher once said that he enjoys teaching so much because he doesn’t rely on it financially.
Tell me about your spiritual belief system?
Well I was raised as a Christian and then was agnostic but now I believe in something like Carl Sagan. A force or energy. Something that we don't have an instrument to measure. A Force or Energy that is God.
What words do you want to close with?
“Don’t give up on the journey.”
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/spinal-arteriovenous-malformations/basics/definition/con-20036382
I am not sure why I started these planned interviews for my blog site. But do know why I picked Kathryn to start. Her vibrancy at the front desk of the yoga studio makes my class better and adds to my day. She is perennially friendly, competent and helpful. In life it seems that the people behind the scene often make the most difference but often get overlooked.
The interview takes place on a sunny fall day at my home in Asheville with my Boston Terrier milling around curiously wondering what is going on this morning.
Questions:
Before the interview you had mentioned Tim and plans with him when we were trying to set a time up to meet.
Tim’s your boyfriend? What is he like?
Yes, I don’t know how to describe Tim. You have met Tim, haven’t you? He’s been to the studio before. He lives in Montana half the year and here the other half of the year. He changes his appearance each time he comes back. He might shave his head or have long hair and a straggly beard when he returns home. He comes back to Asheville for the summer working as a raft guide and in the winter he’s in Montana working in a pizza place.
He shapeshifts?
In appearance yes, but he is pretty consistent in his personality.
It sounds like he has a lot of energy!
Yes
Are you energetic?
No! My dimmer switch goes up and down all day. (laugh) (It changes) in terms of where I am in the day and my interactions.
Do you have kids?
No. My friend once said that the world needs people who don’t have kids because they receive kids in a different and sweet adoring way. She reassured me that it’s ok if you don’t have kids. Isn’t that a really beautiful thing to say?
I love that.
And that is how I feel about your dog too. (I don’t have a dog either). (laugh)
Tell me a little about yourself?
That’s a hard question. Just a little bit. I don’t know. (Pause)
Who are you?
I guess everything I say is very telling on how I identify with my life and who I am. (pause) A 35 year old yogi who has moved to Asheville which I refer to as Never Neverland. To be near like minded people. To heal and to feel safe. Um..yeah…yeah
How did you get into yoga?
The University of Florida offered free classes and I had a roommate who brought me to one. I had a lot of back pain that was not quite diagnosed at the time and I think a doctor or maybe a massage therapist encouraged me to do yoga. I remember being in so much pain afterwards. My legs hurt. I was probably in tears that evening we had no idea what was going on with my spinal cord or the fact that I had a condition at all back then.
Tell me about that?
So I have AVM in my spinal cord. Arteries and veins that are tangled up in little knots. They are inside of it. Inside of the spinal cord. Inside of the dura. It usually occurs in the brain but I have it in the spinal cord. Making it challenging to remove, impossible really to take out.
When were you diagnosed (with AVM)?
Spring of 2006. Ten years ago. It ruptured after dinner one night. I was having stroke like symptoms and couldn’t move my neck. I started vomiting. Went to the Emergency room. (laughs) It wasn’t a subtle diagnosis.
How did life change on all domains from that point forward?
Big things happened. Procedures that I received took my chronic pain away that I was experiencing since I was 17. I was finally able to feel free and move my body. Yeah, so. The quality of life improved dramatically. I had validation for what I had been complaining about for all those years. I had answers. Even my grandmother who is a nurse still says, I can’t believe that that was happening after all those years when you were complaining. We thought you were just a fussy child.
But that had started when I was 17 until I was 25. I just didn’t feel heard. The doctors didn’t take me seriously and it was kind of an indication that we are responsible for our health and for speaking up.
But you did?
Yeah, yeah I did. I think maybe I could have more? If I demanded going to a specialist. If I had demanded imaging or MRI or something. But at the same time I am happy that things unfolded the way they did.
It is hard to demand these things when you are 17 or 23 or even 25 isn’t it?
Yes, I guess it is. So that is how I got into yoga. Just trying. People said you should do yoga, you have sciatica. You should do this, you should do this. I kept going to yoga class for a year or two. Even though it was so painful. So the day of the hemorrhage. I was probably at a yoga class that morning.
It must have been scary?
I was hospitalized and for two weeks was unaware of what was going on. My parents flew in. My dad said it was the worst day of his life. I was out of it. I had tubes in me and on pain meds. It wasn’t until I got home that I started freaking out. Where as the rest of the family, my boyfriend it was a sigh of relief thank God she is home. Those two weeks were hell for them but I was on a dilaudid drip so (I) was like 'Oh, I don’t care.' So that was challenging (when I got home) waking up in the fog like holy shit what just happened!? But my friends were saying, ‘Oh but you should be so grateful. You were so lucky.’ That being the story like a year or longer after. I was pretty depressed and shaken. I was in therapy trying to figure it out. I was too much in my head about it. Like not being stuck and so heavy after would have been better (for me).
When did you come to Asheville?
Six years ago.
A year after I came here?
Yeah.
Didn’t you car get broken into at that time?
Yes. My friend’s car. My purse was stolen
I remember that. Weren’t you on the parkway?
Yes, Bent Creek.
I was at the studio that night and was so impressed that you were upbeat and in a good mood the day your car was broken into. You were talking about how someone broke into your car (your friend’s car) and had stolen your purse.
Yes, my keys were in the car. It was a snowy night and the landlords weren’t answering the phone. I came to yoga and I had my phone next to my mat because I had nowhere else to go. Yeah maybe that was the night I met you or the next day?
I don’t know if that was the day I met you but it was the day I remember meeting you. I was so impressed by your attitude.
Translating to what goes on in my body especially after the last couple of years. Everything is so relative in terms of what is important and what is so scary. I was like oh well I need to change my bank account and get a spare keys.
That is what I remember, you were so upbeat and “oh well”.
Yeah, and a few weeks later that is when the identity theft started happening from that situation.
You had identity theft?
Yeah, the woman had stolen my ID, which is what they were really after. They knew I banked at Bank of America and even though I had gotten all new account numbers and cards they apparently had this thorough scheme of wigs and hats and would go to the furthest drive-through outside at the bank and pretend to be whosever ID that they had and cash bad checks against their accounts. And so, yeah, I did get pretty pissed about that. BOA froze my account for a couple weeks I had no access to any of my funds. She would dress up like me and write bad checks. That is when I started to get pissed.
Is she in jail?
I think so. I didn’t keep up with what happened but since it was my girlfriend’s car and it was in her name she was contacted with all the updates when they finally caught them a couple of months later.
What is your most memorable moment in yoga?
Hmmm There is so many…pause. I think when I started really taking savasana as a pose and really started to pay attention to what words that teachers would use during savasana or to get you into it. And um…and really practicing dying. Shala (a yoga teacher at AYC) once said, “What else can you release right now.” When I am in savasana I often hear that in my head.
What do you do? What is your job?
Technically I am a receptionist. I often equate AYC as an airport (laughs). Guiding the masses. Yeah, I check people into class and figure out what packages and memberships would be best for them. I make sure that the teachers are ok and have everything that they need. I like to think that I am responsible for the energy in the studio and in the lobby.
What do you like best about your job?
The people! The students that I get to see everyday. I feel super fortunate after having three surgeries in two years. Being able to come back to work and actually feel like my job was helping me get better and heal because of the faces I get to see everyday.
Tell me about the person at the studio, doesn’t have to be a teacher but can be, that you admire most? What qualities or characteristics do you admire?
I would say it is probably Sierra (yoga teacher). Her dedication to her practice, to service. To serving other people. Her students. To always re-orienting everything to positivity and light while being direct and an activist. She does her practice without even questioning the option of practicing that day. An example, during a five day training she had an optional sadhana for her students at 430a. She woke up at 230a to drive into Asheville, to lead this optional sit. Taught all day, then stayed to teach her 7pm class and I said, “Now you get to go to bed? And she said, no I have to do my practice because I didn’t get to do it this morning. I said (to her) can’t you take a day off. Oh but I am doing a 90 day thing (and part of it is a daily practice). The way she said it didn’t make it seem like an unhealthy relationship with her practice. No it is just one day out of my life that I have to do this insane day. But to me it showed how dedicated she is to her students. She didn’t have to teach a 7pm class she could have gotten a sub for class, she didn’t have to offer a 430a optional sadhana. She could have stayed at my house. I told her (stay with me). But she said if I stayed over and wasn’t able to sleep…Yeah. I get that, I get that.
If you were going to right now today or in the last couple of weeks pick an archetype what would it be?
Sometimes I think I am just a messenger.
(Oscar my dog comes over and sits next to Kathryn)
Hello lovely! Did you have a nice nap?
So tell me about messenger? What does that mean?
I don’t feel like I am a nomad but just like I am passing on information that I have received or I have learned.
Lessons you have learned. Like lessons that you have learned during this lifetime or that you have come into the world with.
I suppose both.
So with every archetype there is a shadow? For you what is it?
I suppose it is the waiting…for when I am called to be useful
Give me an example of how you are useful?
I have friends who are trained therapists and they come to me when they are having a hard time processing. I feel so honored.
Yes, I can see this and you can make your point with just a few words.
What were you like as a little kid?
Outgoing, articulate. My mom says that I was talking when I was one. Sharp, always scored high on tests but could never sit down long enough to do homework. (laughs) They had to put me in a different pre-school because I wouldn’t nap.
So tell me more about Tim your boyfriend.
Well I met him at a friends wedding. He was officiating.
So he’s verbal?
No (laughs). He was a practicing attorney in the state that they lived in.
What do you like most about Tim?
He’s been my best teacher. I have had to be super clear with what I want with him. Which hasn’t always been easy (for me). He told me that he doesn’t easily read emotions ‘so if you need me to know something you have to tell me.’
Don’t you think those words are portable to all relationships?
I suppose so (laughs)
Who annoys you most?
Ghosts from my past. People who remind me of my hometown and act entitled. Not grateful. Cannot recognize what they have. Or the pseudo spiritual people. Where arrogance meets spirituality. Isn’t yoga all good yoga?” “We have to start somewhere.”
Yes
Are you a yoga teacher?
I started teaching before I trained. I worked for a non profit in Florida (through the University) and taught yoga there until they lost funding. Then I came to AVL and went through teacher training at AYC. I didn’t need to teach though, there are so many great teachers here.
AYC is a very successful studio. What do you credit its success to?
Super organic growth. Never had a plan for it. Teachers just showing up and people showing up and then demanding teacher training.
What advice would you give someone trying to break into the business or open a studio?
Don’t quit your day job. (laughs) A local teacher once said that he enjoys teaching so much because he doesn’t rely on it financially.
Tell me about your spiritual belief system?
Well I was raised as a Christian and then was agnostic but now I believe in something like Carl Sagan. A force or energy. Something that we don't have an instrument to measure. A Force or Energy that is God.
What words do you want to close with?
“Don’t give up on the journey.”
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/spinal-arteriovenous-malformations/basics/definition/con-20036382
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