Dear Inspire Yoga Grapevine Community Supporters,
Thank you for your encouragement and well wishes as we approach the opening of Inspire Yoga Grapevine. My husband and I feel so blessed to be able to be a part of the Inspire Yoga Community in this new and exciting venture. For those of you who don’t know my background or how we arrived at this point, I want to share my yoga story with you.
I’m not the girl who dreamed of owning a yoga studio. If you would have asked me two years ago if I would ever consider opening a studio, I would have laughed you out of the room. But I have always been a girl who took the unconventional path in life.
Even in high school, I knew this about myself. I clearly remember a writing assignment where we were to pick three jobs that interested us as possible future careers. Rather than selecting traditional job fields, I selected options that I felt could be exciting instead of comfortable – Fashion Buyer, FBI Agent, and Fitness Instructor. I discarded the second two options because I was determined to leave my small town in Ohio and move to the NYC. Upon learning that I had been accepted into the Buying and Merchandising program at the Fashion Institute of Technology, I packed my bags before anyone could stop me.
It was here that my yoga journey began. I enrolled in Yoga for my PE credit and was immersed in a whole new philosophy that was completely foreign to me. We practiced on sweaty gym mats, led by a yoga instructor who could not bear to have her beloved practice be trivialized by foolish eighteen year olds. I loved the movements of the practice but couldn’t OM without collapsing in giggles. But it was on a field trip to an ashram where I concluded I was not yogi material. While surrounded by people sitting quietly and enjoying a vegan meal, I meditated on the tofu floating in my broth and decided yoga was not for me.
Instead, I fell in love with and married a dashing, West Point cadet, Joshua. We moved to a few small army towns around the U.S. before deciding to start our family. It was in Colorado where we were blessed by the birth of our son, Ethan.
We left CO when my husband transitioned to a new career with the FBI and we put down roots in Flower Mound. As a newly minted stay-at-home mom suffering through the tragic death of her sister, I began to search for something to help me feel like “me” again. Yoga found me at a time when I was ready to receive its gifts. I started practicing at a local gym and was hooked. Yoga made me feel strong, capable, and comforted. I loved the happy chatter from my mat mates and the calming voice from the instructors; a much different experience than my previous yoga encounter.
When Inspire Yoga opened its doors, I knew I had found a soft place to land…or fall apart…whatever I needed that day. My husband and I had become foster parents and my mat became the place where I sorted out the big problems. Yoga was the place I could drop the heavy burdens that my kiddos brought into our home and seek answers in the quiet place where God lives. Our foster parent journey ended when we adopted our son, Mason, and became a family of four.
One New Year’s Eve, I was reminded of that high school writing assignment, and reflected on my life’s strange parallels with what I thought an inconsequential assignment in my youth. I had been curious about Inspire Yoga’s 200 Hour Teacher Training Program, but always thought it was for “real yogis.” But I knew I needed to take this next step or I would regret it. Over pizza and moscow mules, I announced to my family that I was planning to get my yoga instructor certification.
I rarely embark on anything without identifying my intention, except when it came to teacher training. I had no idea what I would do with my new skill set. However, I found myself often glancing around during teacher training and continually drawn to question, “Where are these people going to teach? How can I
help them share their gifts?” As I began to journal, these questions of service to this community cemented itself in
conversations between my husband and I. When he suggested we serve through opening a yoga studio for other people to share their gifts, I was floored. Suddenly all the questions and journaling made sense. We had spent the last 20 years creating our first sanctuary; our home. It was time to create our second sanctuary; and Second Sanctuary LLC was born.
We are honored to partner with Inspire Yoga to provide the city of Grapevine a place of refuge from the daily grind of life, a sanctuary. I think of all the hurt and hard questions I’ve wrestled with on my mat and how important Inspire Yoga has been to me. My husband and I are beyond blessed to be able to provide a space for the Inspire Yoga’s community of teachers and students telling, sharing, and making their stories. I can’t wait to see Grapevine be Inspired!
Namaste,
April Borge
This is great! Such an inspiring journey that has culminated in the opening of Inspire Yoga Grapvine! So excited to see this community grow!
Thanks, Brent! I appreciate your kind words. I hope you can come by the studio soon!