What is it about frogs?

The Good Doctor tells me that they are lucky - that they are the only animals to whom hymns of the sacred Vedas are dedicated, because they have pure nadis (and because they "sing"). Well, they certainly do. Birds sing too, as do crickets, and hound dogs. But there is something about a frog's song in the middle of the night. In the first few weeks of living here in the country, the sound of frogs singing in the darkness was the first sign for me that I really wasn't in Manhattan anymore.

Anyway, all of this came up because the frog in the photo at left? He was tucked away in my yoga mat when I went to unroll it yesterday to practice my Friday Primary. Why do I assume it is a "he"? I don't know. I just do.

Despite that I dislodged him from his comfortable Tapas-mat nook, he stayed beside me for a good long while. At first he sat next to my mat. Then he made his way back onto my mat. Then he ate a bug. Then I got into down dog, right over him to see what he would do. He just blinked at me and stayed put.

He was in Bhekasana, of course. An auspicious pose for an auspicious creature.

As I stood at the front of my mat to begin the Invocation, he leapt over to a planter and tucked himself away again.

I think he liked me, and I am fairly sure that he brought me some luck. After all, my
HuffPo article made it to the top of the front page of the Living and the Spirituality Sections yesterday and has received more than 70 comments. But even better: after a horrible practice on Thursday (stiff, weak, completely unfocused), I had a wonderful practice yesterday and an even better (totally criminal) practice today (my entire practice, all the way through Eka Pada Sirsasana, which is going quite well, despite that I need to hold my leg with one hand at this point; hell, it's only been three days). Or, I should say, tonight, since I practiced at 8 p.m., in the dark on my back porch, listening to the sound of the rain and, of course...the frogs.

Now I understand Arturo's frog obsession. At least I think I do.

YC