12- Priorities.

It’s a Friday night. It’s the first Friday of the month and all of Bend comes to life with Art Hop.  All the art galleries are open offering free drinks of the adult variety (some kid friendly too) and snacks to welcome in their new artists.  Bend is quite fond of this tradition.  It’s a regular party where the galleries host, the artists come, the appreciators of art have pinky’s-up conversations and the balance of the city comes to crash it. 

Things can get out of hand at times. Streets are blocked with overflowing ‘art hoppers. 60 year old men in pressed outfits have been known to stumble to their knees with too much free booze. 30 year old women have been known to stumble on their words with too much free booze, trying to land a date with the artist. It’s the usual thing of release.  All week long, people build up energies that they need to express.  Drinking, socializing, dancing, dining all top the list for the usual suspects.  My ‘usual suspect’ has found a new release.

Class at Namaspa with Mary Kelley was called ‘shake your asana’.  Forgive me if I misspell Sanskrit words, but English can be challenging enough at times.  I’ll opt for phonetics and or spell check when I am attempting the language of Yoga.

The vibe was a bit more upbeat, it was a Friday night, lets-get-this-party-started theme but not in a ‘Pink’ kind of way.  The class was energizing and a ringing out of all the week’s build-up. It was awash with music and lightness. Not the usual more serious practice that I usually connect to, but there was balance.

I had not been to yoga with my GF in a few weeks.  She is the one that turned me on to yoga a few years back and for a moment, the tables are turned. Lately,  I have gone more frequently than she. In several poses she chimed in while watching me.. ‘That’s great!’ ‘Good job!’ ‘WOW!’

This truly means a lot to me for two reasons. One- she is the one that turned me on to it.  I am thankful that the one who showed me the practice sees my embrace of it. Two- she is a twisty doll.  She is often times the  most flexible one on the mat.. even more so than people half her age. Three- she knows and loves me.  She understands how generally inflexible I am and how this practice is really reshaping my being. I know, that was three reasons, I forgot to include that one about her being twice as flexible as people half her age… I’m placing the credit where credit is due.

She actually told me my chair pose was ‘beautiful’. Maybe in a few more classes, she’ll tell me I have a nice asana.

I am growing by leaps and bounds in my flexibility and enjoying the new connections on the mat.

Namaste-