A Flash Flood Of Hometown Love: Self Guided Practice at The Katy: Dallas, Texas: February 21, 2018
Texas style flash flood rains are awesome.
We arrived in my hometown of Dallas, Texas into torrential winter rainstorms. I happened to get caught right up in them, drenching me so much that three days later, my tennis shoes are still wet. But I didn't dampen my enthusiasm for yoga. I took a quick 10 minute city walk, only to be the single person to show up. The teacher said it was house policy to cancel class when only one yogi comes to class, so she sent me packing back out in the rain and cold and it was pretty much of a bummer.
More and more it seems the practices of yoga show up off the mat. Its both, of course, but what informs the direction of my life is being out in life herself, especially in stormy weather. In my history of practice there have been innumerable times when I haven't been able to get into a pose, so I've had a lot of opportunities to learn how to deal with disappointment. What held me together today was what the yogis refer to as ritam, or rhythm. It's what, way back when I was a kid in this very town and forced to go to Bible study, was referred to as "God's plan". Its only taken about 40 years of learning the hard way that there is indeed a lot of Truth to this teaching.
I woke up this morning with a sharp pain starting from the base of my neck and winding down and through my right shoulder blade. I couldn't turn my head to the side without wincing. I thought I'd work it out in the yoga class, but when that plan fell apart it demanded I look inside to healing both my disappointment and my shoulder. I returned back to my swank room at the Katy and rolled out my new yoga mat, a gift from just the night before from one of my oldest friends. The alignment of just that felt so correct. I am reminded that I am always provided with what I need, and have the internal wherewithal at all times for whatever may show up. I just have to get our of my own way and go with the flow aka, surrender into ritam.
Admittedly, it all worked out because my shoulder pain went away after my self practice. And my disappointment went away because its impossible not to be anything but happy when I'm hanging out in my hometown and surrounded by wonder childhood memories and lifelong friends who make my heart bubble over joy faster than even the mightiest flash flood.
But I suspect it wasn't me doing this magic. In fact it was the opposite. It was a surrendering of my own plans and thoughts on how it should all go down. It was ritam.
Health, Love, and Rock N' Roll.
This is my new yoga mat given to me by one of my lifelong friends Diane. She knows my happy place is the beach and knew I'd love this yoga mat a lot. She was right. I love it and I love her.