…it’s time to go look in the mirror
It’s freezing cold in San Francisco. I realize I’m probably not going to get any sympathy from you, but it’s 47 degrees and we live by the ocean, so the wet, chilly cold feels more like -20 because it sticks to you, and seeps into everything.
Thankfully we only get a couple three weeks of this kind of cold around here a year, and I’m excited for this cold snap to be over.
I was huddling over a coffee pot with my friend Jim tonight, and we were complaining about the weather.
“You know why is seems so much colder don’t you?” He said smiling.
“Why?”
“‘Cause we’re getting older.”
I grinned.
“I turned seventy last week.”
My mouth dropped open. “Seventy? Really?”
“It’s a fact.” Jim smiled at me with that special Jim twinkle he gets when he’s about to let you in on a secret. “I haven’t felt this good in twenty years either.”
I leaned in closer and asked, “What’s going on?”
Jim pursed his lips, and warmed his hands, dragging out every last second of the drama, and said simply “Yoga.”
I smiled at him and looked down. Everyone I know has been hassling me to return to yoga practice. I tried yoga about sixteen years ago, and after a few weeks of really liking it the teacher took me aside and lectured me about smoking. Naturally I didn’t go back. Reminded me of the little talk my Buddhist friend and I had about how “god” as a concept was an attachment I was going to have to let go of if I were ever going to make any real progress with the teachings of Buddha.
Jim looked me up and down thoughtfully. He smiled and as he turned away from me to scan the room around us he said “You should do it too.” right out of the corner of his mouth.
11 Comments
oh yes, do more yoga! Don’t let smoking stop you.
I have been wanting to get back in the yoga habit, but with so much on my plate, I’ve been trying my best to make sure the floor is clear so I can roll out of bed and do a simple sun salutation every morning. It really helps.
I have several students that smoke, and I would never tell them to quit doing that, or to quit anything that I would deem “unyogic”, that would be arrogant.
What? You look good.
But yes, I can see the positive benefits yoga would have on one’s physical appearance and well-being.
I don’t think yoga is calling me to improve my aesthetics. Not in a typical sense. I’m thin and toned. But real beauty comes from inside.
Feeling good is much more important than how i look.
I think so, too.
my friend patricia’s been all over me about yoga. i took a few of her classes, but it was complicated between us then and things were odd.
things are better between us now, and she’s taking me to a class tonight with a man that she considers the best instructor she knows.
if he mentioned smoking i’m running too. heh.
adam
also..
the various complexities of it just baffle me. i think many people lose themselves in the strange identifing and labeling that yoga practice can bring with it. ‘this layer’ and ‘that layer’ and whatnot.
in the end, it’s just stretching and being.
that’s in the same manor that all religious service is just community and belonging.
systems, labels and complex explantions help bring a person into a practice or ritual, giving them access to themselves on a deeper level than they normally would experience. they get their head out of the way with all those long strange words or repetitive kneeling.
i could use some of that, but i dont think that a brain like mine will ever truly be comfortable with letting go enough. while practicing yoga, or prayer, or even just sitting quietly with myself, a very small secret part of me is always holding a running commentary of self-conscious interspection.
“i’m sitting here. i’m moving my arm. i’m turning my head. i’m standing wrong. i’m looking silly. i’m getting old. i’m hunched over. i’m unattractive. i’m attractive. i’m bold. i’m silly. i’m smart. i’m arrogant and stupid. i’m free. i’m being controlled. i’m simple. i’m so complex.”
I never know how to let that go.
What I do is just welcome the thought, or the feeling. I don’t fight it.
Sometimes it’s true, but most of the time I am actually having my feelings, they are not having me. They come, and they bloom, and they go.
The more I become adept at observing these things as what they are, transient emotions, the more vivid the moment becomes.
and Adam, the moment is all there really, truly is.
http://www.rustywells.com
=)
Rusty has a huge monitor, or needs to hire a better designer…
explosion on the screen.
Yiikes!
Interesting. Yoga is something I have resolved to do more seriously next year. I have a similar experience to Adam in that my brain won’t let go and be quiet. There is always a running commentary in my head. Always.