Thursday, May 23, 2013

Practice in Patience

If running and riding hasn't brought on enough frustration and injury in the last five years, I've found a new avenue. Yoga.

There are many positions in yoga that require one or both feet to leave the ground. Here's where it gets complicated.

Though yoga classes are called 'practices' I tend to think them more as the show.

Practicing is done in the confines of my condo with very few witnesses.

For weeks, I practiced side crow for ten or fifteen minutes in the evening. Over time, I started to stick it. In between, I fell.

For a number of evenings, Dave was amused both by what was on TV and my side show. I fell. We laughed. I hovered for a split second. He played along that he saw it to pacify me. I used my iPad to film my arm positioning and figure improvements. The cats watched with confusion.

Once falling had dissipated in side crow, it was time to move onto something I'd not yet gotten a grip on. Something more dangerous, or, at least in my unbalanced and bruised world.

Last week I came home from work late with a few things to wrap up for the office from home. My planned 4 mile run did not happen that day, though the beautiful weather drew just about every runner out onto the lakefront.

I rolled out my mat and watched a few YouTube videos on crow. Though I didn't stick it that evening, I felt I'd gained some valuable ground. Over time, I hope one day it will come with ease and look something like this:



As Dave says to me often, "Patience is a virtue."

Patience is not something I have much of. I better keep searching for it through yoga practice.

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