All's well that ends well

Crim Moon Day practice was good. I have a headache from the sinus thing, but nothing too bad, and I'm not coughing or anything, so I don't think I'm transmitting germs.

The usual crowd. And Mona came back. Volleyball Guy had her set up between Sanskrit Scholar and Chanting Man. He could just as easily have put her between me and Sanskrit Scholar. For a fleeting moment I wondered if Volleyball Guy reads my blog and was sparing me some distraction. And then I thought about how he really seems to have a sixth sense on a lot of things: just as you notice something out of whack on a pose, he'll make that adjustment. Just as you come up with a question, he'll walk over to you. I think maybe he's just hooked into the Tao.

Practice was good, though I was a little iffy about the whole thing and didn't have high expectations, given the headache. Any time I am thinking about cutting corners and taking it easy, I consider skipping handstands/bakasana, etc. So of course, Volleyball Guy cornered me and had me do three handstands after utkatasana. But that was fine.

On to the seated poses, where I once again confronted my little weirdnesses re: marichyasana C and D. I am a much better twister to the left than to the right. Which means my first marichy C is a little off. In fact, I always slow down and kind of overprepare or overthink my whole set up. I manage to bind it, but it always has a self-conscious quality. Which is further highlighted by the fact that when I then turn and do C on the second side, I just slip into it without a thought.

Then there are the marichy Ds. The bind is eluding me on both sides, but the larger issue seems to be the plaintive little wisp of futility that I feel about the pose on both sides. Interestingly, I expected to get caught up in futility surrounding kurmasana and supta kurmasana. But that feeling just never materialized. I am getting my shoulders to touch the floor on kurmasana, and I have no resistance to staying there and breathing for a while. In fact, it feels rather comforting. My hamstrings aren't loose enough yet that I can get my feet off the floor, but I don't mind waiting.

In supta, I usually manage to cross my ankles and pull my hands up pretty high on my back. No binding there, but I can feel my spine with my fingers, so I imagine I will eventually get there. Today, though, Volleyball Guy came over, put a strap between my hands and lifted up my feet, which meant I could wiggle my head under my legs. I had no plans about this, so it was a nice, though somewhat scary event. Vaguely claustrophobic, but exciting nonetheless.

So I'm thinking that my thinking is what's keeping the marichy D elusive, and that my forgetting to think about kurmasana and supta kurmasana is what made them so easy. Basically, I didn't stop to think that they should be much harder than they are turning out to be. This is a delightful discovery, and one I have to apply a bit more in so-called "real" life.