A Love Letter to the First Two Years

The Pilates Place of Rockport • Second Anniversary

Two years into The Pilates Place, I keep coming back to one realization: I am living IN answered prayers. Things I journaled about, dreamed about and prayed about years ago are now part of the life I am living. It has been an Ephesians 3:20 kind of life, immeasurably more than I could have asked or imagined.

And none of it has been a straight line.

The Pilates Place and I have grown up together a little over these first two years. I have learned how to run a business. Sort of. I have changed systems, changed my mind, gotten things right, gotten things wrong, felt triumphant and felt defeated. Mostly, I have learned that more than one thing can be true at the same time.

Progress and regression.Strength and tenderness.Pushing and letting go.Growth and rest.Judgment and grace.Chaos and calm.

I am learning to live inside the duality while rooting and growing.

My body has been one of my greatest teachers in that lesson. When I first started Pilates, I could not access much of the work. I was the queen of modifications. Then I got stronger. I gained access to exercises I never thought I would be able to do. I lost 100 pounds. I progressed.

Then, after a hiking accident last year, I added new injury and flared old injury, and inflammation, arthritis and pain became my companions again. I pushed through my Level II training because pushing is something I know how to do. Eventually, my doctor took Level II away from me. I still have not been fully released back to it, although I am working my Level I practice and gradually adding Level II as my body allows.

Thankfully, that doesn't hinder me from teaching it.

And Pilates still meets me right where I am today.

Sometimes that means modification. Sometimes regression. Sometimes the slightest correction in posture, movement, breath or mindset gives me access to something I could not access a moment before.

Modification isn't the B team.

It does not remove me from the method. Every day is different, and Pilates has taught me to work with what I can access today instead of shaming my body for what it cannot access.

That may be one of the greatest gifts Pilates has given me: a different relationship with my body.

Pilates is a mind-body method. The connection between mind and body is integral to the work. Its principles of Concentration, Centering, Control, Breathing, Precision and Flowing Movement ask us to be present and intentional in the work. And throughout the Pilates system, we are developing and balancing the 4 S's: Strength, Stretch, Stamina and Stability.

Those are part of the method. But practicing the method has also given me gifts I never expected.

I have learned to listen to my body. To stop fighting it. To love it. To steward it. To understand that working with my body doesn't mean demanding the same thing from it every day. And perhaps most importantly, to ask my body to trust me and let me take it from here.

One of those gifts has been peace.

Pilates requires concentration. I have to pay attention to my breath, my alignment, what is moving, what is stabilizing, where I am in space and what comes next. For that time, there isn't much room left for whatever noise I carried through the door.

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I get to leave the rest of the world outside.

I see that happen with my clients, too. The concentration the work requires, together with breath, music and the rhythm of movement, can help create a sense of calm. Sometimes I can actually watch someone begin to settle as we work.

And then there is breath.

When I came to Pilates, I couldn't breathe well. I eventually needed sinus surgery, so perhaps it isn't surprising that breath has become deeply personal to me.

Joseph Pilates placed significant emphasis on breathing in Return to Life Through Contrology, writing:

“Breathing is the first act of life, and the last. Our very life depends on it.”

As I have learned to partner with my body instead of fighting it, I have come to appreciate what an intentional exhale can do in my own practice. It can help me release unnecessary tension, settle more fully into the Reformer or the mat, and sometimes make the smallest adjustment in how my body organizes a movement. Those little adjustments can create surprisingly big changes in what I can access.

Breath has become important in the way I teach, too. Breath, music, quiet and meditation can help create space for clients to settle when they arrive carrying anxiety, fear or simply the weight of the day. Sometimes we need movement. Sometimes we need stillness. Sometimes we need both.

Breath has also become part of my prayer life. Jennifer Tucker's Breath as Prayer introduced me to another way of bringing intentional breathing and Scripture together. Naturally, I came back to the verse I have carried for years and made the practice my own:

Inhale: You go before me.Exhale: You are here with me.

Deuteronomy 31:8

And then I listen:

God, what do You want me to know?What else?What do You want me to do?

I got my breath back.

And somewhere along the way, getting my breath back became about much more than breathing.

There is also that famous quote attributed to Joseph Pilates:

“In 10 sessions you'll feel the difference, in 20 you'll see the difference, and in 30 you'll have a whole new body.”

Apparently, one unexpected side effect of all these gifts was a whole new career.

I fell so completely in love with Pilates and what it was changing in my body and my life that I became an instructor.

I just never planned on becoming a studio owner... but here I am killing it. 😂

That journey has changed the way I think about wellness, too.

A lot of women I meet have hit a wall. We push. We care for everybody. We burn the candle at both ends and sometimes right down the middle. Then something changes: hormones, inflammation, weight, pain, stamina, stress, sleep, aging. What used to work does not work anymore, and sometimes we do not even have language for what is happening.

I recognize that woman because I have been that woman.

I am not standing in front of my clients as a perfect example of wellness. My body changes. I get injured. I have constraints. I modify. I ask questions. I seek help. I keep learning.

Sometimes we simply need another access point: a modification, another modality, more information, another opinion or another practitioner willing to listen, get curious and see the whole person.

There is no paint-by-numbers approach to a human being.

That curiosity has opened an entirely new world for me: mobility, biomechanics, breathwork, nervous-system work, Quantum Energy, NKT and recovery. I am learning what belongs in my hands, what I want to study more deeply and when someone else has exactly what one of my clients needs.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears.

I have had a lot of teachers over these two years: instructors and practitioners, clients, friends and collaborators, experiences I never would have chosen, and my own body. Some people were meant to be part of the whole picture, and some were a piece of the puzzle that helped me see the picture differently.

I am especially grateful for the mentors God has placed in my life: Sammie Sappington of Peach Pilates Collective; Melissa Brotsch, Health and LifeVantage Coach; Spencer Gambill of Highline Pilates; Amanda Lourdes, Personal Trainer and SilverSneakers Instructor extraordinaire; Jennifer Day, Executive Director, RCAD; and so many others.

Along the way, I have learned by watching how others steward their own lives, their capacity and what they choose to carry. It helped me recognize that I needed to become more intentional about doing the same. That realization became an important catalyst for how I began thinking about and cultivating my philosophy of Rooted Growth.

Along the way, Dallas Tibbetts of Rituals Wellness Spa, Lauren Ramzinsky of Rapha Body and I also realized just how extraordinary Rockport's wellness community is, and how many people did not know what was available right here at home.

That realization became Hooked on Health.

It expanded my thinking again: I do not have to provide everything. Part of stewardship is knowing what belongs in my hands and when to connect someone with another set of capable hands.

And I did not get here alone.

Without the people whose hearts God moved along the way, The Pilates Place would not be where it is today and, quite honestly, might not still be here.

My dear friends and family have stood in the gap more times than I can count. They have literally put sweat equity into The Pilates Place, supported it directly and indirectly, and poured into me personally when I needed it. They have carried, built, cleaned, encouraged, prayed, listened, helped and simply shown up.

I am thankful for every person who has believed in us, encouraged us, supported us and invested in what we were building in ways both seen and unseen. I intend to steward those opportunities, and that love, well.

My word for 2026 was Growth.It became Rooted Growth.

The Pilates Place and I are intertwined now. Rooted together. Still evolving. Still learning. Still course-correcting.

Stewardship is not about having the whole map. It is about faithfully tending what God has entrusted to me today.

And underneath all of it is the verse I have carried for years:

“The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”Deuteronomy 31:8

He went before me into this studio. He has gone before me through these first two years. And He is already wherever we are going next.

So, two years later, I am still the student. Still rooting. Still growing. Still learning to live inside the duality. Still relishing in God's majesty and tender mercies.

And still living IN answered prayers.

As The Pilates Place begins its third year, some of what has been growing beneath the surface is beginning to take root.

On September 26, we will gather for the first ROOTED Fall Mini-Retreat, a monthly space for movement, breath, Scripture, stillness and connection.

We will begin with the words that have gone before me all along:

“The Lord Himself goes before you...”

What if we do not know the whole road? What if clarity has not come?

Maybe we do not need the whole map.

Maybe we begin with what God has given us for today.

Today's manna. Today's step.

More to come. 🌱

Happy 2nd Anniversary, The Pilates Place of Rockport. 🤍🌱