Bunny Hops, Careless Drivers, and Finally-Kicking-Bush-Out-Of-Washington Year 2008
Well, one of the moves in yoga that has eluded me for some time (at least a year) finally came together today when I attempted to demo it in class. I had prefaced it with the fact that I can only display the attempt since I have not mastered it yet. After a few attempts, up I went! Crazy!
At this point, you are wondering what the heck this bunny hop is. It is another way to enter handstand - urdvha mukha vrksasana. Instead of kicking up with one leg from down dog, you make a two-footed jump (bunny hop!) from down dog and go up. Of course, I still desperately need the wall, but maybe four months ago, this bunny hop thing was not happening. No sir. I would be there by the wall, just hopping in futility, exhausting my arms and abdominals. Seeing as I haven't practiced it at all in months, my explanation to how I was able to do it is either (1) the stepping up of my general yoga practice in the past months has strengthened my ability to do previously impossible poses, (2) it was a lucky try - perhaps the tilt of the earth and the alignment of the planets allowed me to get up as opposed to landing back on my feet with a thud.
So, I will be attempting this more from now on. It's also a stepping stone (at least in my semi-yoga-educated opinion) to being able to float up from down-dog and land feather-lightly either on my feet or behind. I have watched (in awe) Ashtanga practitioners do this and it would be fun to "float" just like that!
On a less positive note, I almost had a nasty accident this morning on my way to work. I was waiting at a red light, in the right-most lane with a large SUV on my left, who had stopped several feet ahead of the line. Light turns green, I start to go and hear someone honking repeatedly (I guess to warn me) - a millisecond later I am slamming on the brakes, stopping inches from a car that was running the red light. I stalled in the middle of the intersection (gotta love stick shift). I probably wouldn't even have been that close had the SUV not been blocking my left-hand view of the intersection. So, in case anyone is reading, stopping at the line is important! Not necessarily for you but for the people around you! It never occurred to me that if I stopped a little ahead of the line by mistake I could be endangering someone near me. So at least I was able to take that bit of knowledge away from this morning's almost accident (probably would have been kind of ugly).
I guess I had some good karma stored up somewhere. That and good reflexes.
And can you believe Obama and Clinton are neck and neck in both Iowa AND New Hampshire polls? I don't know what to think about it. I mean, I'm a little nervous about the primaries. I like Obama better than Clinton. I fear that Clinton is more electable, and also, maybe more experienced - plus she has Bill as her right-hand man and who isn't pining away for the 8 years we had before num-nuts dubya? So I am torn. Edwards is a no-go - for some reason, I'm not feeling him. He doesn't feel sincere enough. Obama just seems honest and straightforward. He's not playing too many games - he is likable. But young and inexperienced. So there is the conundrum. Hilary is able to do the job. I don't mind her. But I don't like her like I like Obama. I hope that internally, I am not being misogynistic - that subconsciously I am leaning towards the man because I don't believe a woman can do the job. I don't want to be that person. So I am torn :( We'll see. But I WON'T vote for Edwards even if he comes out on top of every primary leading up to California.
At this point, you are wondering what the heck this bunny hop is. It is another way to enter handstand - urdvha mukha vrksasana. Instead of kicking up with one leg from down dog, you make a two-footed jump (bunny hop!) from down dog and go up. Of course, I still desperately need the wall, but maybe four months ago, this bunny hop thing was not happening. No sir. I would be there by the wall, just hopping in futility, exhausting my arms and abdominals. Seeing as I haven't practiced it at all in months, my explanation to how I was able to do it is either (1) the stepping up of my general yoga practice in the past months has strengthened my ability to do previously impossible poses, (2) it was a lucky try - perhaps the tilt of the earth and the alignment of the planets allowed me to get up as opposed to landing back on my feet with a thud.
So, I will be attempting this more from now on. It's also a stepping stone (at least in my semi-yoga-educated opinion) to being able to float up from down-dog and land feather-lightly either on my feet or behind. I have watched (in awe) Ashtanga practitioners do this and it would be fun to "float" just like that!
On a less positive note, I almost had a nasty accident this morning on my way to work. I was waiting at a red light, in the right-most lane with a large SUV on my left, who had stopped several feet ahead of the line. Light turns green, I start to go and hear someone honking repeatedly (I guess to warn me) - a millisecond later I am slamming on the brakes, stopping inches from a car that was running the red light. I stalled in the middle of the intersection (gotta love stick shift). I probably wouldn't even have been that close had the SUV not been blocking my left-hand view of the intersection. So, in case anyone is reading, stopping at the line is important! Not necessarily for you but for the people around you! It never occurred to me that if I stopped a little ahead of the line by mistake I could be endangering someone near me. So at least I was able to take that bit of knowledge away from this morning's almost accident (probably would have been kind of ugly).
I guess I had some good karma stored up somewhere. That and good reflexes.
And can you believe Obama and Clinton are neck and neck in both Iowa AND New Hampshire polls? I don't know what to think about it. I mean, I'm a little nervous about the primaries. I like Obama better than Clinton. I fear that Clinton is more electable, and also, maybe more experienced - plus she has Bill as her right-hand man and who isn't pining away for the 8 years we had before num-nuts dubya? So I am torn. Edwards is a no-go - for some reason, I'm not feeling him. He doesn't feel sincere enough. Obama just seems honest and straightforward. He's not playing too many games - he is likable. But young and inexperienced. So there is the conundrum. Hilary is able to do the job. I don't mind her. But I don't like her like I like Obama. I hope that internally, I am not being misogynistic - that subconsciously I am leaning towards the man because I don't believe a woman can do the job. I don't want to be that person. So I am torn :( We'll see. But I WON'T vote for Edwards even if he comes out on top of every primary leading up to California.
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