Keeping the Faith

"Keep the faith," Volleyball Guy said in his most recent email. He said the beaches are great, massage is cheap and he's even been playing some volleyball. And while he vacations, his students get some practice in keeping the faith.

I tried to get to Saturday led yesterday--for a couple of reasons: 1) it was being taught by Volleyball Guy's son, The Strongman, and it'd be good to support his teaching, and 2) it is a very social class, so I would be able to see Returning Guy and The Other Dave and Bikram Teacher and The Contestant. But I misjudged the commute. The new house is about three miles east of my old house, and I figured it wouldn't take me very much longer to get to the studio.

What I didn't factor in was my route. Anyone who knows North Scottsdale knows not to try to travel west on Shea Boulevard in the late morning on a Saturday. Traffic like crazy. Enough to leave me sitting at an intersection a couple of miles short of the studio at the strike of 10, when class begins. Amazingly, I didn't feel frustrated. I decided to swing by Pier One and look at candles. Huh?! This is the sort of thing that would have really upset me not too long ago.

So yesterday was my day off, and today was home practice. A very sweet home practice, too. I got up at 4 AM with The Cop, who starts a new shift this week. Handy. We had coffee together before he left.

This morning I felt happy and centered from the very first surya. Every movement just felt really pleasurable. On Friday, The Beautiful One explained how to engage my feet more by kind of pulling up through my arches, and that was what I kept coming back to. That, and uddiyana bandha. So, stronger through the feet and lighter through the core. Interesting.

Instead of handstands, I did lolasana, and managed to roll up nicely. Hmmm, proper jumpbacks soon, I wonder? I got both arms all the way through in garbha pindasana. I tried to bend them, but that was a no go, so I figured, Why not try rolling up into kukkutasana? Managed to balance, but just for a couple of seconds, because...gosh, I don't even know exactly what it was that was hurting in the pose...it seems like I have really bony forearms and really sensitive calves, but I had to bail too quickly to really figure it out very well. Calf and forearm pain doesn't scare me like hamstring or knee pain, so I have no problem trying this over and over until it's resolved.

Lovely Sunday practice. Now laundry and errands, and then The Cop will be home and we can watch the Super Bowl!