So if you live in the northeast like I do, you’ve barely seen the sun in the last month. It’s been nothing but rain, rain, rain nearly every day. I even relented and bought an umbrella, which I’m sort-of remiss to do because they’re SO annoying and no one seems to practice proper umbrella etiquette these days and that somehow makes a rainy day all the more gloomy.
Yesterday I dashed off to the subway just as it started to drizzle, and by the time I had gone 2 blocks it was really coming down in buckets. I felt pretty okay about it, since the subway is a hop-skip from my apartment, but I think the bounce in my step (present because I was on my way to teach yoga, natch) causes my umbrella to tilt backwards a bit and inevitably, my boots get filled with water. So while I was trying to reign in my enthusiasm and bring a little more glide to my gait, I saw the most awesome scene:
A little girl and her mother are walking down the street, huddled under one umbrella. Rather out of the blue (or grey), the little girl tugs on her mother’s jacket, points to something, waits for a nod, and calmly walks out from beneath the umbrella and walks toward something I can’t see. Mom waits. And waits. And waits as her daughter sloshes along the sidewalk to retrieve…a yellow balloon. The girl walks back to her mother, balloon in hand, flowered dress and shiny white shoes now thoroughly soaked, and they continue on their way.
When I started class an hour later, I couldn’t shake this image from my mind. I was so struck by the way this young girl approached the object of her desire: she saw it, wanted it, asked permission to get it, made steady progress until she got it, then continued on her way. She didn’t seem to mind that it was raining; in order to get what she wanted, she had to do a little puddle-jumping, and that was that.
It’s so easy to lose sight of this attitude in our yoga practice, especially as we gain strength and flexibility and feel we “should” progress to more complex, difficult poses. Instead of walking the path toward our goal, we run-leap-race toward it, getting frustrated with obstacles like tight hamstrings or weak triceps or sweaty palms that slip off the not-so-sticky mat. We would like to skip these impediments and just get to where we are going, but this is like trying to dodge raindrops in a thunderstorm.
Even if you can find room in your heart to accept rainy days, it’s difficult to really embrace them. But what if we could do just that? Suddenly we could have some choice between thinking “GAAAHHH I have such tight hamstrings and it’s keeping me from doing [insert pose here]!! How can I get around that??” and “GAAAHHH I have such tight hamstrings and it’s keeping me from doing [insert pose here]!! I guess it’s time to spend a little time in utanasana and see what happens.” We could even embrace utanasana instead of just accepting it & slogging through with gritted teeth and a hardened heart, since we know we’re just walking through the rain to get our yellow balloon.
This week, try to stay dry on your way to class…but don’t be afraid to stand in the rain when you get there.
So true, Becca.