Of gratitude and yoga

I love Thursday morning yoga class at Yoga on the Park. I like to arrive early because I catch Joanne G. doing her routine, warming up, stretching ... doing what a yogi does before teaching. She is lovely to watch, an inspiration. This morning I padded in quietly, tried to copy some of her moves (thats kind of a joke), stretched and had a wonderful class.

Today was special as only two of us were able to make it to class. While I'm not sure how Joanne felt about it my fellow yogi student and I were thrilled! All that attention just for us!

Joanne has such positive energy about her. I feel wonderfully taken care of by her in the yoga class as she adjusts my poses, keeps an eye if I'm over doing it, helps push me just a bit past my limit. At the end of class today as we entered the relaxation pose, she came by, and with a gentle and caring touch, straightened me out, told me to give myself over to the ground beneath me, and indeed I felt I was being held in the truest of senses.

Living in the moment allows you to make what ever you will out of that moment, so today I decided I was going to relish in the taking care I felt I was receiving. Just as Joanne was taking us through the final meditation, my hearing aid battery died, the result of which gave me the sense of being a child, a wee child, lying there content, contained ... And just like a baby I only understood every few words - oddly enough I kept hearing "safely", "comfort" ... And while I couldn't make out the words, the tone was loving, soothing, comforting.

I left today's class with such a sense of peace. Walking through the park I felt immensely grateful for my life, the glorious spring day, the lushness of the trees, my home, my yoga practice. I had, I have! a deep sense of appreciation for the stillness of mind the practice brought me today. It goes hand in hand with the practice of gratitude.

Thank you teacher (s).

Namaste to you.