Hey! I'm Meredith.
I am a high school English-turned-art teacher who started in the profession 27 years ago. I live in the Piedmont of North Carolina with my husband of almost 24 years. We have two girls who are both in college here in North Carolina and we’re excited to be figuring out how to live this new phase of life of empty nesting. I teach yoga several hours each week and at some really cool venues in my town. In addition, we love to travel, see live music, participate in any outdoor activity, eat good food, and live a healthy, happy, wholesome life. This is what I call the big love life.
In the past handful of years, my husband Andy and I have faced several BIG life changes and challenges (as humans often do). Taking them as learning experiences, they allowed us to analyze our shared vision of life currently as well as for the future. The future's here. We are it...
Both of our jobs are stressful and for different reasons. Andy doesn't have to practice quarterly active shooter drills or deal with overcrowded classes in an understaffed building. But I don't have the responsibility of owning a business or ensuring a livelihood for employees I hired. Because I started teaching young (at age 22), I have always had dreams and visions of also retiring young. But I know my income and the ability to carry the family's insurance is a valuable component to our lifestyle. Going to school has become somewhat of a chore, and I often refer to my state retirement plan as “golden handcuffs” because it is true that hitting that 30-year mark does make a difference. But it also makes me feel stuck. I have perseverated on that feeling and keep thinking this ain't it...
In December of 2021, we took a dreamy Christmastime trip with our daughters to Costa Rica. I was returning for the second time (after studying abroad there in 1995), but it was a first-time visit for Andy and the girls. Everyone was mesmerized by the friendly people, their focus on sustainability, its biodiversity, and the general pura vida lifestyle. That following June, we spent a month in the town of Brevard, a small mountain town at the mouth of Pisgah National Forest in Western North Carolina. Both places filled our basic and general needs as humans, and the retirement dream was born: home-base in the mountains, winters in Costa Rica. I locked into that vision in June of 2022 and have been trying to figure out how to make it happen since.
Teaching yoga has certainly helped ease the stresses of life as well as fuel these creative desires to do more. To live bigger. To share the goodness with others. I am so lucky to be a part of a beautiful community that supports each other and lifts each other up. My yoga business name is Big Love Yoga--and I firmly believe that the nurturing, loving community that has stemmed from the collective rolling-out-of-the yoga-mat is something worth sharing with the world. It's what I call the big love yoga LIFE: taking time out of our day to care for ourselves through things like yoga, feeling good doing so, finding a loving and supporting community that cares for one another, and inviting others in to share the joy. And practicing yoga is NOT a requirement for all of this; but it was a natural progression for me to use my Big Love Yoga brand as a stepping stone to this website and platform. In short, the big love yoga life shouldn't be kept a secret, it should be shared far and wide.
So in the Fall of 2023, I became fixated on the idea of utilizing my innate skills to share with others the good things I know--perhaps creating something viable for me and my family that would allow me to emerge (hopefully unscathed) from the difficulties of public schools. I've read, researched, purchased courses, watched master classes, scrolled, taken notes, and jumped in knowing that I can figure this out and I am capable of acquiring the skills to do so. True to my Gemini nature, just being an affiliate marketer selling someone else's course didn't seem to fill my creative desires in this venture (there's more to this story; feel free to inquire). So after weeks of digging in, I've decided on a website, blog, and Pinterest (you can follow me there, too @bigloveyogalife) as this combinations seems to accomplish what I am after--which is sharing the good stuff with others. There MAY be an Etsy store on the way. But most importantly, my chosen outlets in this digital land will enable me to share the all the cool things I've gathered up on my adventures with others. With you.
So follow along with me on this next adventure and the big love life. My blog, website, and Pinterest accounts have been created to share the good (links below). If I can make another human's life a bit more wholesome, a bit easier, a bit more enriched, then I've done what I have come here to do: Share the big love life.
