Day 9 - Crooked Cobra

Okay, so it's April 7th, Springtime, in Victoria, so why is it that the temperature dipped to 1 degree Celsius this morning? There's a very thin layer of ice on the windshield, enough that you have to get the scraper out (in my case, it's an old store card). There SHOULDN'T be frost in April here in the capital city, where we always boast to the rest of Canada that while they are still digging themselves out of the snow, we are already doing the annual flower count.

Well, things change, and life throws curveballs at you to keep you grounded. This applied to my practice this morning, at 6:00AM. Ahh, the Cobra Pose, I love the Cobra Pose. My lower back has come a long way since the early days. I think it is building strength little by little that I can rely on it to keep my belly button on the floor while the rest of my upper body is in the air with little weight on the hands. I am mindful also of keeping my legs straight, tight, like a Cobra tail, while in the posture. Oh, but well, as I was getting ready to get into the posture, waiting for teacher O. to say so, she walks over to me, then proceeded to shift my legs and shoulders in order to be properly ALIGNED. As I slowly went into the posture, she held my feet down and held my legs together as one. Man, that felt SO GOOD! It felt very, very different from all those Cobra postures in my memory bank. Thank you, thank you, O! Namaste.

After class, I asked O. if my legs were off to the side, instead of straight back, and she said it was. Honestly, I felt mortified inside; have I been doing the posture incorrectly all this time? She must have sensed this, because she said that it may not be the case, that it's just today that it was so out of alignment. For her to come out and correct me like that, yah, I must have been really crooked.

With this experience, I will now endeavour to be mindful of ALIGNMENT. How it is very important to keep that in check, instead of aiming for depth. Once you've got alignment down pat, then you can aim for more depth. Tomorrow is Day 10, and I cannot wait to be back to the hot room.

Good night, Mommy. I love you.