I loved life; I had horses, wolf dogs, a perfect private beach on the Trinity River. I homeschooled my incredible daughters. Who are all exceptional in different ways. I also taught multiple weekly classes in aerial fabric and yoga for balance and fun. Eventually, I was all over teaching workshop-style classes, yoga, flexibility, and contortion. It was delightful helping people achieve their flexible potential. Meanwhile, I was baking and taking care of the farmstead, chickens, goats, horses, a moody cow, and our beloved wolf dogs. Cooking (more like baking) and cleaning for my family suited me. Meanwhile, I started performing and coaching circus, which included hours of training.

The animals were happy, and the dogs frequently were right there by me stretching and waiting patiently for me to finish so we could go to the river. The horses, meanwhile, would nuzzle me when I stretched outside.

Life was a dream—except paradise was not paradise. We were lacking as a family. Communication and goals were lacking—we did not see eye to eye. My relationship fell away into dark places. Expectations were not the same, and we mostly lacked devotion to God. Everything fell apart. My body broke first. I could perform amazing bends but barely managed other easy tasks.

The first injury was the shoulder that I failed to warm up; I was running through a routine and tore my shoulder. Then I fell off my horse, hurting my other shoulder. I failed to properly rehab and protect my shoulders early on, so I moved around the injury. I ignored the pain. I ignored the injury. I carefully advanced anyway. I was then running through a routine, and my hip popped- it hurt. I already had a crooked short leg and a serious break when I was 19. It hurt and did not stop- ever. I ignored it. If I went slow and warmed up just right, it was fine. The left leg compensated for the injured right and it became my dominant leg, then that leg took the hit. They both hurt. But I carefully warmed up my torn hips and shoulders. I was very deliberate and ensured perfect form and slowly could perform and function. At least for a while, until the stress from outside sources was too much. The stress is what brought me down in the end. I made videos and pictures of what to do and how to do it properly.

I kept stretching thinking it would be okay if I just did everything right. But when life gets hard, you break in more ways then just the body. It was too much I was done. In the following pictures you can see the shoulder breakdown. It turns out the shoulders were holding on by threads. And there was significant nerve damage to the right shoulder.

My last big stretch. And I knew it. I was done. My heart was giving me issues, my kidneys were tired. I had no energy to move. I was actually looking forward to sitting and resting and not stretching or training.