Good Morning

Well, since I did not teach last night I was sleepy earlier and I got to bed earlier which means I woke up earlier. So after my morning pranayama, mantra, meditation and puja practice I am sitting down with a cup of tea with milk and honey to write a blog entry. The house is quiet. Kelly and the pets are still sleeping. Well, all the pets but Izzy the Cat who think she needs to be on my lap, on my computer or in my arms at all times. When I go to the bathroom, she thinks she needs to be in my lap then also. (I know, TMI) But really, I am just rying to impress upon you all the relational nature of this cat. Of course, when there are strangers in the house, she hides under the covers until they leave or until they have been here for 3 days and she has to come up for air and food. True story.

Yesterday was a great day. Kelly and I walked the dogs, went grocery shopping, Anne and I did some yoga and then I wrote all afternoon. My new year's resolution is to finish a book project I have had in my mind for several years. I have started it several times and been unable to really get some momentum going with it. So the other day I was talking to Kelly about it and I realized it is now more painful to not write it then the sacrifices are that will be involved to actually get it done. Not writing had begun to plague me and since I hate to be plagued, and ending it is entirely within my power, I have resolved to "get'er done".

So I talked with my editor from Yoga From the Inside Out, my beloved mentor Regina Ryan, who agreed to be my conscience. She and I have monthly dates to check in and for me to "hand in my work" and she has agreed to support me a long the way so that if I lose momentum she will remind me of how clear I am about this now. Regina is the perfect woman for the job. She was a cloistered nun for 20 years, spent some time with the Rajneesh community as a sanyasin and has been a long time student of my spiritual teacher. She was a teacher of mine in college and so she is kind of an authority figure for me- like I want to do a good job for her because I respect her so much and I do not want her to think I am lame, but she is also very nice so I am not scared of her, and at the same time she knows bullshit when she hears it and she isn't afraid to call someone (me, in this case) on it if they are making excuses or being lazy. (And she knows how to make long sentences like that actually make sense and follow grammatical rules without losing my "voice" in the properness of things.) Like I said, perfect for the job.

So, no I will not tell you what it is about. (Of course, it is about yoga.) Please do not even ask because then we are going to have those awkward silences where I have to, in a nice way, tell you that I do not want to tell you and when it comes down to it, tact often fails me in such circumstances. So then I will end up seeming bitchy and hurting your feelings and then I will feel bad and so will you.

It is not a personal thing that I do not want to tell you. In fact, those of you in my classes will read the book (At least, I hope you will read it. I assume by this point in things you all realize you are obligated to at least buy a copy)and go, "Oh, this is just everything she always talks about." But the thing is that I have found if I spend too much time talking about the content of my writing, I lose the impulse to actually write. The creative energy gets spent in the discussion and the part of me "plagued to write" gets enough relief that it no longer "must write" because it has talked. And while the conversation is scintillating, inspiring and so forth, after a year, no book was written. Lots of nice chats transpired, but no book. And this is the Year of the Book. So don't ask.

So- my agenda for the day is a lot like yesterday. Walk the dogs, practice some gentle asana and write. ("Gentle asana?" you think. Does Christina even know what gentle asana actually is??) I say gentle because tomorrow is The Eye of the Tiger and I want to be ready to really go for it. In such cases, gentle for me usually means that I work on my hips. Really, if they are open, everything goes better. Every category of poses benefits from the hips being open. So I will save my arm strength, save my leg strength, do my inversions, spend a lot of time with weight on my legs to get my femurs to root and practice a hip opening sequence.

Then after lunch, I will sit, hunched over a keyboard and write. Ah, a day of ecstasy. It doesn't get much better than that, if you are me. Have a good one yourself.