Amy,

As you know I haven’t been practicing yoga nor blogging because of flu-like symptoms.  Strangely enough, my Twitter following (@garykahn) has increased.

A yoga teacher said that while I’m getting better I should take care of myself and be okay with not practicing yoga and not writing.  How bad was my yoga?  Would my wheel pose cause a permanent yoga flat tire?  Would practicing warrior pose get me dishonorably discharged for fear of friendly fire?  Would the continuation of child’s pose force family services to issue a restraining order against me?

Perhaps the signs are there and the public has spoken:  I should stop participating in yoga and stop writing.

Gary

Tammy,

I arrived ten minutes early for class Saturday.  As I approached, I saw a woman who smiled and said, “Hi.”  I was taken back a little as the “nobody talks to strangers rule” is usually in effect here in South Florida.

I smiled back and she said, “Where is everybody?”

“It’s a holiday weekend,” I said.

From her accent I could tell she was probably European.  “What holiday?”

“Memorial Day.”

We went our separate ways and rolled out our mats.

During class, I looked up to the sky and saw a bunch of clouds.  I then noticed the blue space area between the clouds.  It seemed to form the shape of something.  I started thinking as we were holding chair pose for an extended period.  The Euro woman must have influenced my thinking because I thought I saw a boot shape, kind of like Italy.  Here I was in a yoga class, doing the chair pose and thinking of some great tortellini, pinot grigio, and a cannoli.  I guess that’s what people mean when they say yoga can be relaxing.  After a year and a half of sweating at yoga I finally experienced a relaxing moment.  Ah, but then my chair pose crumbled and I fell.

Europeans really know how to make their moments count.

Gary Kahn

Tammy,

For the second time I went to visit my father and step mother in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  They moved there about 3 years ago.

They picked me up from the airport.  It was night when my dad’s car was about a mile from his house.   I was pretty tired from a long day of travel and having a mild allergy problem.  In my oozy state I looked out the window and saw something I didn’t see the first time I visited.  A street sign indicated that the next turn signal would be the split between Western Trail and Namaste Road.  I didn’t see this sign on the first trip.

They say when the student is ready the teacher will appear.  Am I ready?  Was I born again the second I saw this momentous sign?  I’ve been doing yoga for many months with you and my quads are still weak.  My body isn’t lined up along a single plane in Warrior II pose.  I find the Sanskrit and English names of the poses pretty wacky and laugh at them in class.  Was this the sign that you and yoga are telling me that I should do a life-long meditation along the Western Trail?  Along Namaste Road there is a STOP sign right below the street sign; did I pass this anti-yoga sign so that I would get the hint and stop going to your classes?

Gary Kahn