One Year Markers; The First of Two

We celebrate anniversaries as the passage of time, a way to mark milestones. I'm celebrating with friends and two yoga sessions, to honor Life and the changes that it brings.

As the years pass, we keep mementos and photographs to remember those special moments and hold loved ones close in our hearts. As I look back over my life, this last year and these last 8 months, a lot of who I am and have become is begotten of Parson's Fifth and The Cru. In my short yoga practice, I've realized that I have had many experiences that I never would have had and tried things that I never would have considered. Ultimately, I would have never grown in the ways I have over these last 8 months, wearing shoes I would have never expected to.


One event doesn't wholly define a person or community, it is the response to that event that defines them.


Through Loves and Friendships, we give each other the chance to become stronger and learn more about each other than we would have been content to know, to delve deeper, and gain a better understanding of ourselves. Simply, together we embrace Life - both the joys and the sorrows.

The people who come into our lives come in at the time they do for a reason, helping us realize our potential and then some. They come in their own way and they exit in their own time and fashion. However, we step forward sometimes alone, sometimes alongside another, and sometimes surrounded and propped up by others.

Weekend Yoga

The weekend is a time for pause and where we can begin to celebrate the week that has past and focus on our own worlds. To forget about putting our work shoes on and to pad around in socked feet or barefooted!

My weekend yoga practice is centered around the community - Saturday at City Fitness and benefiting various local charities; Sunday at the Lululemon store in Georgetown. There's actually a lot of community yoga out there - you just have to look around for it.

Saturday's practice was interesting in that the Instructor had us arrange our mats in a circle and the flow was very different from what I have become accustomed to. After the class, as Bauhaus would attest, I was fairly critical. Upon further reflection, I did get something huge out of it.

I *almost* held Crow - Bakasana.

I've read the section on Crow multiple times in yogajournal.com and pp 315 to 317 in B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga are well read, flagged and dog-eared. Not to mention the fact that Baron Baptiste taunts me on a daily basis in his Crow pose on the cover of his book Journey into Power.

Seeing the instructor on Saturday next to me beautifully holding Crow with ease was awe inspiring. Too often we try to fight ourselves into something, fighting against a zipper or a shoe that's just a smidge too small. In a moment I could see where both the balance point and the weight of the pose were located. Her feet were beautifully pointed into each other and neck gracefully extended.

As much as we read about something, sometimes you actually have to go out and practice, step a little to the side, and gain a new perspective. In my late-20-some-odd years, I’ve begun to notice that it’s the little things that make a world of difference.