Converging forces

Lots of days off. Saturday (weekly day off), today (ladies holiday), and tomorrow (Moon Day). Kind of like being in Mysore, where there seem to be many days off. Gee, was it just Friday that I was saying I felt tired and wrung out? And now three days off. I feel like I can really put them to good use, recovering. My shoulder was sore last night. Not horribly, but enough for me to remind myself that I have to be more mindful in my vinyasas.

The introduction of Ashtanga to My Gift goes along nicely. Yesterday was a day off for me, but she did all of the standing poses. Nicely, too. It is very interesting to think of someone starting the practice as such a clean slate. When I came to Ashtanga, it was after many years of other activities, so I could think about what I was doing in relation to other practices (Hmmm, this is easier than heavy squats, but harder than regular cardio, but safer than climbing; though, I suppose I could fall on my head in handstands, but it'll only be from a foot or so off the ground, so I'll most likely not die...).

My Gift, on the other hand, took dance lessons for a number of years, and ran track for a couple of years, and took riding lessons for a long while. Still, she has yet to draw any parallels to her yoga practice. Perhaps she never will. She is less apt to over-think things than I am.

So I watch her work her way through the suryas and the standing poses, and I wonder if she will practice them until they become second nature to her, and if she will grow curious about what poses come next, and about how to work further into each pose, etc. It is so hard to say what brings someone to practice.

I think at this point she simply wants to follow her rheumatologist's advice to stretch more. And she also wants to feel stronger, to look sleeker (I was trying to gauge how much of her desire to practice might be motivated by wanting to slim down--I'm always worried about the compulsive gene that runs through our family and makes us think we are overweight, even when we have very little body fat--and her reponse was "I know I'm not fat, Mom. We're just talking about a couple of vanity pounds!" She cracks me up, when she sees through my fears and assumptions and just states her case :-)

I know I have absolutely no business teaching anyone Ashtanga, so all I can hope is that she takes from this what she needs to move along to the next step--whether it be a real teacher, a different form of yoga, or an entirely other answer that will put her a step closer to whatever practice will help her feel healthy and connected. Same thing with The Cop.

For now I am simply trying to answer the zen question: What do you do when a hungry person comes to you?