I remember falling in love with Pilates.  For me I was most aware of my bursting heart when I was amongst my beloved teachers and colleagues.  Attending conferences and workshops, and taking lessons was the expression of that love.  I would come home walking on clouds, overjoyed by what I’d experienced.  Over time, life happened.  With the inevitable changes that occurred, and with my inability to travel, my love became internalized.  As my personal Pilates practice developed and changed with the ebbs and flows of my life, my love of Pilates became much more personal.  While I encourage each and every person to partake of lots and lots of training when it comes to Pilates, I encourage developing a personal relationship with the work in equal parts.  There is a particular buzz that comes from being in the presence of others who share our enthusiasm and passion.  But there is also a danger of losing ourselves in that thrilling experience.  It is important to take time with the work of Pilates, because to understand the depths of the method is to understand oneself.  Many of my teachers told me that certification is only the beginning.  Of course they were correct.  I am eternally grateful for the foundation that my Pilates training gave me, I have so many individual people to thank for that experience.  And now, as I go through my days apart from all those people, and as I remember what they told me many times over, I realize every day how the work is continually blossoming in my life.

I have created this cyber-space for sharing Pilates love stories.  This idea came about when I was reading the biography of Joe Pilates.  Upon completing the pages that chronicled his life, I was left feeling a considerable amount of sadness at the frustrations that Joe Pilates experienced with respect to the aspirations he had for his work.  I wanted to reach through time from the confines of my life in the here and now, to the confines of his in the there and then, and give him a giant congratulatory hug.  Today, we are so lucky to have his work.  I created this space with the idea that celebrating that luck and expressing our love and gratitude will serve to expand upon that good fortune.

I’m celebrating this Valentine’s Day by launching what I hope will be the start of a collection of Pilates Love Stories to be viewed in cyberspace by anybody and everybody.  I’ll add stories as they are submitted…I’m hoping to soon be inundated, because I can’t think of a better thing than to be surrounded by the positive effects to of the work that I so revere.

Now you are invited to share a story.  Please please please, share a story.  Tell your friends, colleagues, clients, and teachers, to share their Pilates love stories.  I know that everybody who has practiced Pilates for any considerable length of time has one.  Share it, so that others can bask in the light of Pilates.  So that they can be inspired and motivated to find that same love within themselves.

Think of it as a valentine addressed to Joe Pilates…