Process, process, process!!!!

Maria, and I swoon over the decreases on Jen's knitted hat. (thanks Tracy for the pic)

Last Friday we had an amazing little fiber therapy night, and we will do it all over again in December if you missed it.  Knitting, stitching, and crafting in general tend to be very contemplative practices that are mindful cousins to yoga, and I think the key is process.  Things develop in unexpected ways, flaws become attributes, and the completed product is either constantly tweaked or used as a stepping stone for the next project.   Just like yoga.

 Lea in down dog (thanks Jana for the pic)

This week everything about my downward facing dog changed.  A pose that I have been playing with for 18 years feels 100% different than it did last week.  It has me simultaneously thrilled and totally surprised, but there should be nothing surprising about it since I have been slowly working on little parts for a while, they just finally came together in a new way. 

 I feel almost like I float in it, like my arms got longer, and my chest and shoulders don't just open, they expand.  The best part is that I bet there is more to discover, and I am in no way even close to "finishing" downward facing dog.  In fact I am certain in another 18 years it will feel nothing like it does now and even in 18 months I will feel change, and in search of new frontiers. 

 Its not that the perfect downward facing dog is unattainable.  It is, there is proof on all of our mats.  We've just passed through our own very different and very fluid versions of it in practice, and in yoga, "practice makes practice."

Also, finding more subtlety and juice in one pose leads to great amounts of productive mischief in every other pose.  So lo and behold I tried hand

stand.  OMG, it totally changed!!  I feel almost like I float in it, like my arms got longer, and my chest and shoulders don't just open, they expand.  

So here is the wonderful news, I can work on downward facing dog as long as I live and it will always be interesting, challenging, and transformative.  How exciting is that!!??!!