Almost missed the boat

But I caught it before it had gotten to far away from me.

Caught it right after Bhujapidasana, in fact.

Today I got to practice 15 minutes later than my new and improved usual time. It was not a matter of procrastination. It was a matter of just moving reeeeeaaaaally slowly and kind of not caring because I kind of sort of didn't want to get any adjustments today, and I figured that if I got there later, I would finish later, which would mean that T would leave the room before I got to Mari C and D.

So, why did I feel ambivalent about getting adjusted today? Basically because today was my sixth day in a row of practicing. That is a LOT of days of practice in a row, and I have gotten deep adjustments in Mari C and/or D in every single one of the them. And my understanding is that Fridays are traditionally supposed to be "easy" days. That means that if you practice beyond Primary, you only do Primary on Fridays. But what about those of us who practice only some of Primary? What is an easy day for us? I figured that an easy day for me would be a day where I just get myself into poses and not worry so much about the depth of my twists and the wrist-grabbing.

Then I got to Shala X. As I walked in, I could see that the class was packed. Hmmm....that's strange, I thought...usually it is pretty quiet at the shala on Fridays. Fridays are usually a day off for Sir, and although T is great, people do get attached to their teacher. And by people, I guess I would mean, well, me. Fancy that. So, when I realized that Sir was teaching, my whole motivation changed. Fancy that!

On the other hand, I was still a bit ambivalent about being adjusted in Mari C and D today, so I didn't plan on rushing through my practice just to make sure that I got to Mari C before Sir left the room at 10:15. On the other other hand, I thought it would be a good day to try treating my Mysore practice like a led practice and getting into and out of my asanas with a minimum of drama and flourish and holding my asanas for five breaths each, period. As a result, I made it through all of the standing poses and was sitting in Dandasana within 25 minutes (okay, I only did four Surya Namaskar B's...but I DID hold Parivritta Parsvakonasana and Prasarita Pado C for an extra five breaths each). That left 20 minutes to get through the first half of Primary, which I did easily, and ended up getting great adjustments in C and D in just the nick of time.

The amazing thing was that it felt so good to move through the postures and the vinyasas at a brisk (read: non-proscrastinated) pace. I built up an incredible amount of heat, and my vinyasas were really smooth without all of the drama and anticipation with which I often imbue them. So happy was I to have made it from my first Surya A to Mari D in a respectable 45 minutes, without having felt like I had sacrificed anything, including my breath and my form, and so excited was I to dive into my still-new asana, Bhujapidasana, that I just went right to it after Mari D. I did a nice Bhujapidasana, although my exit was sloppy because I experimented with taking one leg into bhakasana at a time, which made me fall over to one side. And just as I was about to try again, without the one-leg-at-a-time thing, I realized that something was missing.

I had missed Navasana, "boat pose". Back to Navasana I went. And then back to Bhuja. And then Bhuja again. Like a kid with a new trick. "Again! Again!" It is so much fun! She said, clapping her hands with glee...

So what happened to my "easy" day? In a word: backbends. I bagged on my 18 backbends, and just kept it to three, eight breaths each. And only 10 breaths in headstand, although I still took five breaths in Ardha Sirsasana (half-headstand, which for the non-Ashtangi's out there, is harder than headstand...the legs are at a 90 degree angle to the body and just dangling there, held up by nothing more than the strength of the core and an energetic lifting of the inner thighs).

Later, I met my friend E for lunch (Go Ladies Who Lunch!). She's designing cashmere sweaters with another woman we know, and she gave me a gorgeous tangerine, v-necked, long-sleeved one. Then E and I took Lewis on an hour-long walk by the river, went to pick up our kids at school. On the way, E stopped to pick up an iced coffee NOT at Starbucks, but at the "lowbrow" place, as it is known in New York (but we don't care, we like it anyway), and we ran into K there, also picking up an iced coffee before heading off to pick up her younger son at school - a different school from the school E's and my kids go to.

That's the cool thing about New York City in the warm weather. Everyone's out and about, and you run into people you know everywhere, and when the school day is over, you go to pick your kids up in the schoolyard. So there is a lot of socializing, lots of interaction. It's very friendly and social. Whoever said that New York is an impersonal place?

And well, that brings me to right now. Home on the sofa, feet up, Lewis by my side, kids playing.

Shabbat Shalom!

YC