Skip to main content

Five Continents and One Eagle Pose

Today is the first Saturday in a looong while that I've been in DC.  Which means it's also the first Saturday in awhile that I've been able to attend my favorite yoga class, taught by my favorite teacher (aside from my sister, of course).

So, I'm in class this morning, feeling extremely grateful and pleased with myself for making it there in the first place, and for creating this space in my life to reflect and take care of my body.  It is no small feat these days, let me tell you.

After a series of rapid vinyasas, I'm hoping that my audible breathing is more an indication of my mastery of Ujjayi breath rather than being out of practice.  Then Faith (our teacher) invites us to move from warrior three (balancing on one leg with the other extending out behind you) to eagle pose.  Oh god.  Cue unyogalike dread.  Eagle pose is not my friend, insofar as poses go.  It involves balancing on one foot while wrapping the other leg around the calf, and also doing a similar twist with your arms.  These things are just not natural to the human skeleton, of that I feel quite certain.   

Actually, I executed a fairly awesome eagle pose once.  But that was right after I got back from Bhutan.  My balance was a little more in tact back then.  Which got me to thinking (ignoring the call to focus on my current practice and stay in the present...), maybe eagle pose is a metaphor for my life.  Balancing on one leg, wrapping limbs around one another, forcefully wobbling to such an extent that my neighbors may be concerned, but ultimately managing to keep it all together. 

My feet have found their way to five different continents in the past three months.   In between travel, I've experienced heartache, a life-altering trauma, and the loss of my grandfather, all of which have added up to a fairly exhausting Fall.  Oh yes, and our beach house caught on fire.  And I'm sure there were some other things.  So my one-legged balancing is not at its best.

But I guess that's why we have two legs when we need them.  I'll get back to my awesome eagle someday.  In the meantime, I'm just happy to be breathing in and out, focusing on all of the wonderful things that life has brought me in the past six months, and using my two un-wound, non-eagle legs as God intended them: Standing.
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 11, 2010 at 8:08 PM

    OH I love this sooooo much!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 11, 2010 at 8:23 PM

    Caro, you must write a book. You can skip the "eat" and "pray" and just call it "Looove!"

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Southern Politics, of the Heart

In the early Spring of 2018, a mentor gave my name to the Chair of Georgetown County's Democratic Party — their convention was coming up, and would I consider providing the keynote address?  There is most definitely a first for everything.  I accepted with gratitude and a healthy amount of anxiety.  Below is an excerpt from my speech, which I'm sharing now because I know many good-hearted, rational folks shy away from politics.  I get it, it can be uncomfortable, and it's certainly been divisive of late.  But we've gotten to a point in our country where we can't afford you not showing up to cast your ballot.   So maybe my interpretation of politics helps you a little, or maybe it totally pisses you off — either way, I hope it nudges you towards the polls on November 6th.    *** I'm biased, but my name is pretty special. I inherited it from my grandmother, who was a pretty special woman.  Most people called the first Caroline M...
Post a Comment
Read more

Name of the New Game

Four years ago I moved home to be a part of a growing movement for civil rights and social justice in the South. I have learned many, many lessons and found great clarity along the way.  In these four years, I have confirmed that the Southern Powers That Be are— surprise —still quite conservative. Not only in political persuasion, but perhaps more consequentially in tolerance of risk, of trying new things, of investing in people and ideas that have moved the needle towards justice and equality.  In these four years, I have also confirmed my long-held belief that— surprise again —the South is not universally conservative. Courageous Southerners (native and adopted!) are working on reversing all manner of injustices incurred in this generation and those long past—from public education to women’s rights to justice reform and beyond. Many are my friends. All of them are my heroes.  And after four years of Life-As-A-Progressive-Southerner-Living-In-The-South, I ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Care about education? Want better for teachers? Vote like it

https://www.thestate.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article212727544.html?platform=hootsuite LETTER TO THE STATE EDITORIAL BOARD LINKEDIN GOOGLE+ PINTEREST REDDIT PRINT ORDER REPRINT OF THIS STORY June 11, 2018 07:18 PM Updated June 11, 2018 07:18 PM COLUMBIA, SC  Did you know that May was Teacher Appreciation Month in South Carolina? Yes, indeed; proclaimed by every governor since 2012. The gesture, much like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (June 17, by the way), is an important reminder to acknowledge and celebrate a group of people who are pivotal in our lives. Of course, we all know that every day is Mother’s and Father’s Day, just like every month is Teacher Appreciation Month, right? I wish. Though South Carolina’s teachers have not staged walk-outs like their peers in other states, our educators are no less struggling with the burden of increasing responsibilities compensated by decreasing paychecks.  Contrary to popula...
Post a Comment
Read more