Ashtanga Traveler

Okay maybe not so new, but revisited ones....why do I practice? What is it about the practice that keeps back at it over and over again? What is the drive? What is the point?

The weeks have been rolling by, busy...so so very busy....and when I really look at it I am not sure why they are so busy. Certainly part of it has to do with practicality....I am busy because I have to here and there and everywhere it seems, all at once....hmmm. I think I am making things more difficult than they need to be with my mere attitude.

SO where are things at right now....I am teaching Mon-Fri these days (6 classes a week)....while my teachers are away in Mysore. Wish I was in Mysore....:(.

I am still working at the uni, still wandering in between school for H and creche for C...have kids round to play after school.....going to H's cross country race day and being a parent helper....He came in 4th of all the yr 1 and yr 0 kids....pretty cool. He is quick.....

I completely messed up the video for his crossing of the finish line....oh well. I am not exactly techno-savy.

Conrad has said a number of amusing things lately....

"Mum, did you know that when you go outside you are standing on Earth?"

"Let the beginning start!"

And Huxley said

" This is hilarious isn't it, Conrad? Mum, what does hilarious mean?"

"Mum, I want to walk all the way down the beach to that human being over there."

Even on my most dreadfully sour-filled pms days I crack up when things like these come out of their mouthes.

SO the yoga.....same same....intermediate is becoming a calm practice for me, still hard of course, still heaps to work on, but in my mind it is no longer a chore, it is a pleasure. I guess I must be getting somewhere then, where is the question I suppose, but not sure that actually does matter in the end.

Ah yes and Jack Frost visited this am. Little bastard killed the lettuce. Huxley ran outside in his barefeet, tshirt and shorts to grab some frozen grass to bring inside and show me, shivering"lllllllooooookkkkkk mmmmmmuuuuummmmm"....and did I ever mention there is no central heating in this country....the kids ate their breakie wrapped up in their sleeping bags....I am not joking.

There ia a lot to share, and then there is nothing. I feel dull. The cold air has taken away my apetite for warmth and practice, so I go and wiggle around on the mat for awhile, try to let the mind settle some way or another. It works sometimes and not others. I have been practicing alone most of the time these past few weeks. This is mostly out of necessity to fit teaching, my job, and my family into this equation....so making it to regular classes for my own practices has fallen by the way side. So I go in alone. And I like it that way for now. It is just too damn cold to make it to the morning classes, the room just does not seem to wamr up enough by the time I need to be in full swing, so that scares me a bit. Maybe I am letting my fears win, but maybe I am just trying to save my joints.

The afternoons have been much much friendlier to the body, as the school is warmed up, and so is the mind and body, ready to tackle what is before me.

So what is wrong with my knee. It is debatable....my physio is not sure, so he is calling in for another opionion. We shall see by tomorrow I guess. I have found that teaching aggravates it, probably because of lack of consciousness, not good. SO I am working on that, as well as the fact it is not as warm as it could be.

My left shoulder seems (I say SEEMS) to be sorting itself out. Amd my right hand, well who knows....bottom line I cannot straighten my right arm in Bakasana, wrist and hand just will not allow it, like it just will not go there. I can hold the asana for quite awhile, but the arms are just slightly bent. I must look over my hand/wrist anatomy - note to self.

I am sort of under the impression that all three of these annoying disturbances are linked to each other by my body movement patterns, so I am trying to be much more conscious of this especially in vinyasas, where I have a tendency to flake abit in some state of apprehension about the next asana perhaps.

Teaching is great, but hard work. Real work is dying fast. Good thing? Not sure.

The where to next dilemma is taking up more space in my mind than it should I reckon. Possibly even making my head hurt.