Tammy,

I woke up this morning with a lot on my mind; the week, the obligations, the Kardashians:> NOT.

I went to the local yoga store to take your class.  At last, I realized that you had not banished me from taking your classes.  In fact, you graciously welcomed me and asked how I had been.

There were a lot of people.  The woman next to me gave me grief because I have a bigger mat than most and she claimed that I was in her space.  I was thinking:  “give me a break.  Look at all the makeup you put on for a yoga class.  Who are you trying to impress?”   Oh yeah, I had lot’s of charitable kharma this morning.

You started the class and my mind focused on the poses, stillness, and skittles.  Yeah, all the different colored mats made me think of the chewy candy.  My mind said chew on yoga and get back to why we’re here.

Eventually I focused on the poses and felt the glory of the pain during frog pose.  I was ok; it just let me know I’m alive.  As we closed with the meditation, my mind was finally relaxed and I had become more accepting of myself and others.   I even saw the beauty in the woman next to me; she was sweating so much her mat looked like a Jackson Pollock painting.

Gary Kahn

Tammy,

How was your vacation?  I am sick again.

For the first time in a few days I left the house yesterday.  I went to the grocery store for some sickness supplies.  I walked through many aisles to the back of the store.  All of a sudden my hands were over my head and I stood up tall in Mountain pose.  This was followed by a swan dive after which I folded over into Uttanasana pose.  My girlfriend was shrieking and hiding.

Does this mean that through your classes I have become a yogi?  After all, I don’t do yoga at home.  Why did this urge come up when I was light headed in the refrigeration section of the grocery store?  Is yoga now part of my heart center?

Still in the refrigerated section of the store, I looked down at one of the shelves and found the cheeses and other cold stuff.  Lo and behold I also saw an Einstein Bagels bag.  Hmmm I thought: a bomb in a grocery store?  Let’s do some national security work and see what’s in the out-of-place bag.  I mean, why would a sack from a foreign food seller be found in this grocery store?  After much trepidation and careful maneuvering, a bagel was found inside the bag.  Now, I know sometimes people take an item from one part of the store and when they don’t want it, drop it off in another part of the same store.  This was clearly not the same store.  Perhaps somebody with Alzheimer’s disease forgot what store they were in.  Or maybe somebody else was more sick than yours truly and did a full yoga class in the store, but forgot to take their pre-bought-post-shavasana bagel with them.  Have you ever heard of yoga having this effect on people?

Unfortunately and perhaps needless to say, I won’t be in your class tonight and hopefully will do fully monitored vinyasas, mountain and other poses in your class soon.

Gary Kahn