I started my practice late, already well past lunch time, but I wasn’t hungry yet so I went upstairs to do my practice. The practice went well in that I was able to focus and move with the breath, I felt relaxed and free and full of joy. It wasn’t a long session, maybe 30 minutes of moderate physical effort, just the right amount for me today for meditation-in-motion. I settled in for savasana. Ahhhh . . . what’s that sound? My brain scanned for the answer. Oh, that’s Ryan in the kitchen . . . looking for his lunch! I tried to bring my attention back to the breath, but I could hear him down there making lots of noise, I knew it was coming so I waited for it . . .
“Grace? . . . Grace?”
“Yes?”
“Where’s the cheddar cheese?”
I’m still lying on my mat but now I’m answering “it’s in the container.”
“I thought we bought cheddar cheese!”
“We did! It’s in the container,” I thought on it bit longer, “the one with the green cover.”
“I don’t see . . . oh, wait, there it is!”
This sort of things happens all the time. In fact, that was the third disruption. First the phone rang and I had to answer it because Ryan was on a conference call through Skype. It was a computer calling for me . . . and then it hung up on me! The second disruption came while I was standing in Tadasana. Ryan’s call was over and was now charging up the stairs to find me. I don’t remember what he wanted but I think I got a bear hug out of it–the man can’t resist picking me up or grabbing at me when he finds me in a yoga pose. He’s kind of like the boy from elementary school who pulled your hair if he liked you.
I could have been annoyed. And there are those days where instead of responding with a normal “Yes,” I reply with a harsh-sounding “WHAT?!#?” But today, yoga worked its magic and I rolled off my mat without “properly” finishing and went downstairs to make us a smoothie to go with our lunch.
I hope you enjoyed this look into real-life yoga because if yoga doesn’t change you and how you react to life, then what’s the point?
My example of being yoga rather than doing yoga is not as emotional as the example Cora Wen gives in this interview, but the point is the same. Here is an excerpt from that interview:
I was also really cranky. I was this aggressive, do yoga. Do yoga. Do yoga. That’s what I was. I wasn’t being yoga. I was doing yoga. . .
I was practicing all the time and I had to go home for Thanksgiving. I was really cranky because you know, if you go home for Thanksgiving, that means you you’re probably not going to practice six hours a day. In fact, you might not even practice at all because you’re dealing with your family.
You’re twelve years old again, and fighting with your siblings about whatever, and I was not completely present. I was just talking about my yoga and oh, you guys are fine. But you don’t do yoga, and it’s going to make your life better.
Within a few years of that, my mother got ill with lung cancer and died very quickly. In 12 days . . .
I mean, it just was this is how it happened. And I remember thinking that that was the last Thanksgiving that I spent with her.
I remember thinking about that. All the times that I couldn’t talk to her on the phone because I was practicing, all the moments that I couldn’t go to a movie with my friends, all those things.
That’s what yoga’s about. Being present with your family. Being present with yourself. Living this life fully, completely, and absolutely and not defining life in search of some practice or some goal or some pose or some memorization of some sutra.
This weekend is a long holiday in Canada as we celebrate Thanksgiving on Monday. I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and may you enjoy it in the company of friends and family. Ryan and I have not one, but three dinners to attend. I probably won’t have much time for yoga:)
Happy Thanksgiving!
