To Look and To See
Grace Ranson has been one of my dearest friends for well over 15 years now. We met at my first Pilates studio, Momentum Pilates Studio, in Charlottesville, VA. She came in as a yoga teacher looking to expand her practice to Pilates, and two years later she walked out not only a certified Pilates teacher, but also the new proud owner of Momentum as we were making our way back to Texas.
Grace and I often tell the story of those negotiations to buy and sell Momentum, here’s the short version ~ the negotiations were tough for the sale of my first studio, we couldn’t talk for about a year afterwards, we wept the first time we saw each other a year later, and haven’t been able to be separated since. It was an obvious choice for who I would get to lead our hikes, yoga, moral support and all around everything, Grace joins me at both our Signature Retreats and Pilates Pedagogy. Here is a blog she wrote for me recently. You can have the privilege of meeting and getting to know Grace at our inaugural Pilates Pedagogy Retreat April 20 - 23, 2023 Additionally, Grace joins me for all our Signature Retreats, our spring dates are May 5 - 7, 2023.
Rachael Lieck Bryce
To Look and To See
By: Grace Ranson
“Its not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
Henry David Thoreau
Melbourne Beach, Florida was the destination for my family’s annual summer trip. On our daily beach walks, I would look at the kids running in the surf, seagulls huddled together in groups, watching the waters edge change with each breaking wave. I would look to the surfers, the families together under their umbrellas, lovers walking the beach. I was an observer. Each time we returned to Melbourne Beach marked a change in me. I’d reflect upon the same kids, seagulls, and families but with slightly different perspective than the year before, like the clouds, changing with the wind.
Our beach vacations offered a sanctuary of space, time and presence where I could be still. This practice of stillness provides a place to seeing within, to the deepest part of you. We must be patient, honest, and open to the unlimited ways to see. No agenda, just allowing the mind to connect with the quieter corners of your life and what gives it meaning. This was one of the most significant things I learned in my time in Coimbatore, India. In 2005 I decided to continue my yoga education by partaking in a program at an Ashram there. I was lucky enough to receive guidance from Krishnamachari Yoga Mandiram in Chennaiit. The program was a month long intensive, followed by 3 weeks of travel through Southern India visiting sacred Temples, attending pujas and learning from celebrated Yoga masters. In Chennai, the focus was on wellness programs for people around the world with differing disabilities. It was during this time, I could truly see the importance of individual, appropriate movement, for all bodies. This experience and traveling in India gave me insight into the importance of using intentional moments for pause, rest, silence, and mindful intention.
“The real act of discovery,” wrote Marcel Proust, “consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.”
In August of 2022, we officially moved to Melbourne Beach. We sold our house in Virginia, I closed my Pilates Studio of 15 years, and we enrolled our youngest in her junior year at Melbourne High School. I looked at this new adventure with some hesitation and apprehension, but also with fresh, exciting, vulnerability which was exhilarating. After settling in our new home, our vacation dreamland, I was reminded that awareness does not come from your surroundings, it comes from within. In times of great change, this is an easy thing to forget. Through quietness and concentration on breath, through this awareness I am able to truly see. I can close my eyes and see more clearly my thoughts, my intentions and my path. Intentional breath and stillness help me connect to my body and my soul. Only in quiet reflection and introspection can you begin to really see your true being and potential.
In all our busyness, its important to take intentional acts of pause. The clarity it can bring is something we must gift ourselves. It’s one of my favorite things about Rachael’s place. Heirloom Springs can be that pause, the opportunity to quiet the mind to look and see what’s really there. What you take and discover with you when you leave is a new perspective, a quite insight, fresh eyes and a fresh step in the direction of your own self-discovery. A journey that can happen on a daily walk, a quite time reading a scripture, a moment of watching a sunset, or moving your body with physical intention through a mindful practice.
With enough practice, we might even begin to attain that state of perfectly fresh seeing known to Zen Buddhists as "beginners mind"—that spacious and clear mindset where, freed from everything you thought you knew about the world, you can finally truly see.
By: Grace Ranson