We Have Received Your Claim

(and other problems of semantics)

Why not start with some laughs? It’s December after all! And for me, unfortunately, that means a bunch of doctor appointments before the resetting of the reimbursement clock.

I’ve noticed that my health insurance company loves to send emails. With the subject heading, “WE HAVE RECEIVED YOUR CLAIM,” they seem kind of ominous, and as if they are trying to remind me how much I ask of them. There is something passive-aggressive as well…The word claim sounds so suspect…Did I only claim to be sick? Or perhaps I just claimed to go to the doctor?

Speaking of claims; in my foray back into social media, I am quite amazed by the number of claims in my feed (what about that word feed anyway? There is nothing nourishing about it). The algorithm that they have identified on my behalf sends lots of posts with claims about 1)aging 2)managing curly hair 3)raising happy healthy dogs and 4)the ways that yoga will change your life and your body and solve…well, everything.

I will not live long enough to test all their helpful suggestions (code word for products) in categories 1, 2 and 3, but having practiced yoga for more than 30 years, and taught for almost 20, I do have some pretty strong opinions on the Yoga claims (so helpfully illustrated by a twenty-year-old woman wearing hardly anything and demonstrating postures inappropriate to most humans).

Maybe I am not the right audience. I’ll confess that I am on social media mostly for a few blessedly ridiculous comedians and a whole bunch of animals. I am not there for advice (and certainly not for news). Anyway, I’m putting it on my list of things to reconsider for the new year.

The end of the year can be sweet and profound. Weirdly, this year, it feels uncomfortably spacious (long story), like a too big room with nowhere to sit. I’d like to step into 2026 with a little more intention than the last. While it’s true that sometimes we are pulled along by forces beyond our control, other times, we have opportunities to tap into a sense of agency and retrain our focus on our own North star. I’ll be announcing an end of year practice to explore just that, so look out for a follow up email soon.

But first, since I didn’t get a chance to write last month, here’s a quick, plant-heavy, catch up:

December Rhododendrons by the Laurel River. They grow enormous there.

November was a month of big change. It began with the crepe myrtle tree out back in a surprising autumn outfit that lit her branches burnt orange. She took her time to slowly disrobe, finally, toward mid month, offering her beautiful bare limbs to the deepening cold. November also began with late blooming annuals wilting drily in hot afternoons, still colorful but not looking their best, guests who stayed too long at the party. Briefly too there there was snow, a festive amuse bouche for the holiday season and after that a two day arctic blast, winter without mercy. Finally, after the whirlwind of all four seasons in a few short weeks, my yard pretty much exhausted itself; all but the evergreens gave up the ghost.

This is the beautiful drama throughout these mountains. The seasons are unpredictable; swinging wildly, sometimes in a single day, no definitive claim regarding how Fall should be.

Now that it’s December though, the cold does seem to be settling in. Morning ice turns the scraggly lawn a frosted blue. From my window, the clear glass ornament I hung on a Charlie Brown tree next to the Buddha looks coated in sugar. It’s too cold to go out and photograph, so you’ll have to take my word…my claim…that we can find beauty in the smallest details of this vivid world.