Groundhog Day

As the days pass, my shalamates and I are falling into comfortable patterns of practice. I know that I'm on schedule if I'm starting my second series as another shalamate is moving on with her finishing. From my Urdhva Dhanurasana, a shalamate behind me is taking Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana (Driste drift, but it keeps me on course).

And if I finish taking rest by 8:20 and leave the shala by 8:30, the following events are almost guaranteed to unfold, with graceful regularity:

-As I turn north on a residential street near the shala, an old Italian lady is walking her white maltese on leash, heading south. Both look slightly rumpled, but eager and happy.

-As I ride up the side street next to the grocery store, I will see one of my youth yoga students waiting on the sidewalk. Her mother coaxes her little brother out of his booster seat. The child cranes her neck around, looking for my orange mat bag and grins when she spots me.

-As I turn east into my own neighbourhood, my two gaybours with their young twin sons are walking west to school. Each man holds a child's hand and the little boys skip, swing and hop their way down the sidewalk, crackling with energy.

-When I approach my front door, the fourth floor neighbour is walking out with his bicycle. I hold the door for him, then he holds the door for me. We nod politely to one another.

-And finally, Princess Fur and I go to the park for our morning walk. We always see the white-haired lady wearing a denim shirt, walking her golden retriever.

For the past three days, these events have occurred, one after the other, so predictably that I'm a little freaked out by it. But I'm also comforted.











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Figureheads and Frogs

Nice practice this morning. I felt a *little* less like I was frozen in carbonite. ;-)

One of the many joys of the past week-and-a-bit have been the adjustments in Intermediate Series. These poses were given to me after I left Shala Central and returned to my home practice. I wasn't in Montreal long enough to really 'settle into' the new stuff, so I didn't get any intense adjustments there.

As my shoulder has continued to heal, I've reintroduced elements of my practice. It's been a couple of months since I did full Bhekasana. I've been doing the pose one side at a time. Last week, I started flirting with the full pose and yesterday, decided to go full throttle.

And I got the adjustment, OMG the adjustment! Intermediate Series friends gave me the heads up this one. I don't what it LOOKS like, but I can now tell you that it FEELS just like this:


Cue: Angels singing. "LAAAAAAAA"

Joy!

Other things that made me smile today:

-Taking not one, but TWO naps today. My noon class cancelled, so I even had time for a long walk. And tonight, I'm going to bed on time. I'll get 8 hours sleep. The awesomeness!!!

-The guy standing near me on the streetcar tonight. He was having an animated conversation with Jesus. Oblivious to the stares from the uncomfortable cloud of commuters around him, he closed his eyes and continued to fervently make his case. Loudly. He was still at it when I exited at the subway station. Hey, if you're gonna fly your freak flag, then wave it PROUD!

-The way Princess Fur's ears flop up and down when she runs. Reminds me of when she was a puppy and my heart melts a little bit every time.

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