“You’ve just got to pull the pin out of the grenade”
This website wouldn't even be in existence if it weren't for my beautiful friend, Jenny Finkel.
Most people know her as their favorite Chicago yoga teacher, but she's also a Fit Bit Ambassador, an improv comic, a writer, a poodle mom, a #superbuddy to Dr. P, a lover of deviled eggs, a wedding officiant, a claw machine expert, and one of the smartest women I'm lucky enough to know.
It was yoga that initially started our friendship. I was wrapping up my yoga teacher training and popping into studios all over Chicago, when I found Jenny's OMboy Flow class and discovered what made Jenny's classes so unique from all the others. Her warm nature and welcoming smile made me feel right at home, and soon I was flowing to "No Diggity" and having a blast along with everyone else in class.
But was wasn't just Jenny's fun spirit that hooked me, it was her wisdom. She isn't just a yoga teacher, she's a yoga educator. She has this special ability to break down poses and explain the anatomy behind it, the science of why poses feel the way they do, or what structurally has to happen in your body to be able to lift yourself into Eka Pada Koundinyasana II. (She can also tell you the story about the Sage behind the pose. She knows everything.) After one of her famous OMboy classes, Jenny invited me to join her for sangria at the bar next door. Because I never turn down an invitation like that, I went along and pretty much everything after that was one hilarious outing after another. It didn't take long before one of the best yoga teachers in Chicago turned into one of my best friends.
Jenny's skills as a yoga teacher translate perfectly to how she treats her friends. Just like she listens to her students, observes their energy levels and needs, and then guides them to make decisions is the exact same way she shows up for the people in her life. I go to her with everything--yoga questions, fitness questions, job advice, life concerns--and she always listens, always gives me insightful and loving guidance, and always makes me smile. She has this amazing ability to deliver one-liners that just stick with you, make you laugh, and make everything seem so much simpler than you originally thought. In the middle of an evening class at Studio III in Chicago, she had all of us in a wide-legged forward fold and reminded all of us that sometimes our yoga practice (much like life) can be a total mess, and to just "breathe into the shit show." And just like that, we all laughed. We all breathed. The room was suddenly lighter. That is the power of Jenny.
Jenny ultimately became my sounding board for the biggest year of change I've ever experienced. I was soon to be married, and she not only supported me during my wedding planning process, SHE OFFICIATED MY WEDDING. Yep, and she nailed it in a way that only Jenny can. She knows my husband, Shawn, and I better as a couple than anyone, and we knew there was no one else for the job of officially making us husband and wife. (I didn't find out until months later that the whole process of becoming ordained and writing and performing our wedding ceremony completely stressed the poor girl out, but in true friend fashion, she never let any of that on at the time.) And just like she does in her yoga teaching, she stood at the front of our wedding venue in Nashville and made Shawn and I comfortable, she made us laugh, and she gave us the beautiful gift of a loving and lighthearted wedding service. And she did all of this while wearing her signature sparkly cowboy boots. Classic Jenny.
It didn't take long after our wedding for Shawn and I to realize that the city of Nashville was calling us, not just to get married there, but to LIVE there. We both had fabulous lives, jobs, and friends in Chicago, and we were spoiled with world-class restaurants, any store you could possibly want, unbeatable culture, and even a Cubs World Series, but there was something about Nashville that we both just needed. We talked about needing a change of pace, a slower way of life, and we both had career opportunities that we wanted to explore. I started to let myself think about what it would feel like to pursue teaching yoga full time or what a thrill it would be to launch my photography website and get my business off the ground. I wondered what it would be like to live in a new place, have a fresh start, and explore a new city. Well if you know me personally, you know that I am a thinker. And a worrier. I'm not proud of the worrying part, but it's a genetic predisposition, unfortunately. So for months, I worried about the potential change. "What would my family say? How could I move farther away from them? How can I just leave my job? What if no one wants to hire me? What if I can't find a yoga job? How would I ever make a photography website? I don't have any of this figured out. Maybe this is a bad idea..."
Shawn didn't need much convincing. He would have just stayed in Nashville after our wedding if it were completely up to him. I, on the other hand, was filled with self questioning and fear of what would happen if I shook up my life to that amount. With the exception of going to college, I had never really made a big location change like that before. I had been doing the same job for the last eight and a half years and was pretty good at it. Teaching yoga had always been my side gig and I wasn't sure I was cut out for teaching regularly. I felt like I had to have this perfectly planned out before I could make a decision. Like I needed to have all of the pieces in place before I could commit to moving to Nashville. But other than a place to live, I didn't have anything else planned out, and it was paralyzing me.
Enter the wisdom, friendship, and clarity of Jenny Finkel. She and her amazing husband, Dr. P, had had countless discussions with Shawn and me about the potential move. Each time the four of us were together the conversation naturally shifted to our thoughts about moving there, what we were going to do, etc. And on one particular evening, over bourbon mules and Molly's cupcakes, Jenny delivered one of her famous one-liners that made an incredible impact on me. "Abby," she said, "You've just got to pull the pin out of the grenade." And then proceeded to mimic an exploding volcano with her hands. And after all of us laughed, I realized she was SO RIGHT. (She tends to be right a lot). Jenny made me realize that I just had to follow my heart and move to Nashville (the pin), and let my safe and comfortable bubble in Chicago explode (the grenade). Because all that would be left after that would be new, exciting opportunities, and the chance to purse them.
And now here I sit in my Nashville apartment, finishing up my very first blog post on my brand new website, all because an incredibly special friend gave me the courage to tell fear to f*%# off. To pull the pin out of the grenade. To let life explode now and then because once the dust settles, the space that it leaves behind is a really beautiful thing. And to remember that there will always be challenging days, but it will all be okay if we just "breathe into the shit show." Dear Jenny, thank you for being such a bright spot in my life. Thank you for your friendship, your wisdom, and for always making me laugh. You've given me courage I didn't know I had, and I am forever grateful for you. Love you, friend.