Home Again

(So a warning in advance, the spell check is not working on the post so if you notice more mistakes than usual, just cut me some slack and read on!)

I am home from the weekend in Corpus Christi. I had a really fun time with Michelle and Jen Robinson and the rest of the gang in attendance. It was fun to see some familiar faces from YYTT and also to meet so many new folks. We had a really fun time together and a great turnout for a first time event, I thought. Michelle, of course, was a fabulous hostesss.

We did have a few strange things happen during the weekend, though.

On Friday night we went to get dinner after the session and the first place we went told us they would not seat us. We all kind of stood there a bit dumbfounded thinking, "Is this for real?" We could not remember a time that we had been told, "No, we will not serve you tonight." Certainly we have been told, "Go sit in the bar and wait for an hour" or some variation on that theme but none of us could remember a time in our experience where we were flat out told "No". (And as you can imagine, this was not a group of women who like to be told "No"!)

So we went to another place and we had to wait there but eventually we were seated. Getting service was another thing. We had a waiter who was kind of an amalgamation of Bill and Tedd (with no excellent adventure, mind you) with a little Dumb and Dumber thrown in. On top of that we had a cook (It was one of those Japanese cook-at-the-table-kind of places) who was reasonably hostile and who required a lot more interaction than most of us cared to put out at that point in the evening. He threw fried rice at me, blew steam at Salinda and pretty much hazed each of us in some way throughout his little stint as our "personal chef." Weird. Kind of funny. Kind of painful.

So by the time we even got home from that it was close to midnight. Then the next morning in class, we were practicing standing Baby Cradle. And on the second time through it, Cornelia put her foot down on the floor and remarked that she had lost feeling and movement in the foot. (We later came to find out that she tweaked the peroneal nerve and she will be okay.) But she had to lay down and eventually leave class, go to the hospital and have an MRI, CAT scan and so on since no one knew what the cause of the symptoms were. So that was very exciting. (Not in a good way. ) I was so worried for her and also for the other students and for Michelle. SO that was hard for all of us.

I called John Friend on the break and got a hold of him later in the evening. He was very supportive and he said that in all of his years teaching he has never even heard of anything like that happening in such a basic pose. So I will be doing some research into that. But he was so supportive, helpful and concerned. While we were talking someone came into the room (he was in Seattle) and he said, "I cannot talk now, someone got hurt in Christina's workshop and I have to help her with it." He told me what he thought would help and made sure that I promised to call him the next day and keep him updated about her progress.

Another cool thing is that on the break Anne called from Dallas where she was taking a workshop with her teachers and so I got a chance to talk with them about it and they gave me excellent advice and support. So, while I was so worried about Cornelia there was also this little story playing out that was demonstrating the web of support we really have with our community and how even Senior Teachers from another method in another place would rally to help us in Corpus. That is a what I love about yoga. Also, Jen was a rock during the day with good sane reminders to breathe, trust and so on.

Okay, so that was Saturday. Sunday was a fun day of back bends and inversions and I left feeling like the folks there, so well trained by Michelle, got a taste of the Ansuara Yoga magic so I feel like my job was done well. We are scheming for a way to make an ongoing studies program there so I am looking forward to that. Thanks to Michelle's promotional talent we sold 13 copies of my book and I reigstered 5 people on the spot for Desiree's workshop. (Which is now over 25% full, so if you are waiting to register, don't.)

And on top of it all, Michelle has the best yoga boutique of any studio I have visited so I came home with a new necklace, a great hoodie, a tank top for Kelly and a fabulous outfit for myself. (Evidently, I need a business card that says, "I work for clothes.")

I mostly walked away with a feeling that Corpus Christi is ripe for Ansuara Yoga and that the teachings and principles might really unify the already growing community there. I do have a great feeling about it. Thanks to everyone who made the weekend happen- Michelle for organizing and hosting, all of the the students for participating and for the very tangible web of support that, to me, is Grace made manifest. I can't wait to go to the next level together.

So today, I need to finish the bibliography on the second section of my book and send it off to my editor, who so far has overwhelmingly positive feedback about the project. So, a day on the computer for Christina. Time to get to work.

Here are some pics that Michelle took. Enjoy!