Hatha

Today is my birthday! It's also a heavy teaching day for me - I had four classes to lead. I like teaching on my birthday, though. It's fun to tell the students and see their eyes widen.

In the youth class I teach at a private school the children broke into a rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday to You!' and we danced around wildly to the tune. Then they all tried to guess how old I am. “You're 17!” “You're 50!” (when I asked her to guess again, she asked shyly, “Older?” and I laughed and groaned). One of my older students got it - she remembered: “You're 39!”

And I am. But I don't feel 39. I feel like I'm still in my early 30s. I have a feeling that 40 is going to take me by surprise. How did I get here?

Practice was a mixture of Hatha and a lot of backbends. I've been thinking a lot about backbends and how differently they feel for me from day to day. Today was a bad backbend day, but I decided to just experience the stiffness and tension and explore it with my breath. Survey says: Yuck.