What a marvelous thing Yoga is.  Yesterday I was quite depressed, to the point that I didn’t even want to start my evening practice.  I knew, however, that I would sleep better if I did it; so, without much enthusiasm I started.  This morning I woke up at my customary 4:40 AM and when I stepped into the shower at 5:30 I felt completely alive.  My day hasn’t been any better than the others this week other than that I feel alive and full of energy and that, to me, is a tremendous thing.

During my practice this morning a couple of things happened.  Rodney Yee talks in his book Yoga:  Poetry of the Body about his body asking for him to do certain poses, prompting him to focus on specific areas or groups of poses.  This morning my body felt like I should focus on my upper body.  I threw the upper body workout in the DVD player and off I went.  I hadn’t done this workout yet but I just thrilled right through it!  It was simply amazing.  One pose is an incredibly difficult (for me) back bend.  You lie on your back, feet hip width apart and as close to your butt as you can get them.  Put your palms flat on the floor next to your ears and press up into an arch.  Every time that I tried this (it’s done three times in this workout) I’d flop flat on my back.  I failed to do more than barely get my head off the ground and it was great and terribly fun!  In fact, I can’t wait to do that workout again.

I think I’ll start an early evening practice now.  McKenna saw me reading Rodney’s book and started bouncing up and down and saying, “Are you going to do Yoga?  Can we do it too?” over and over and over.  She reminded me a little of a small yipping dog that wants to go out for a walk.  So, while Shanna was getting ready to go out to a dinner meeting she had, the kids and I did Yoga together.  Actually, they giggled and bounced and made spectacles of themselves as they tried to do the poses while I practiced focusing on my practice and we all had a blast doing it.