Saturday in Mississippi

I am in Hattiesburg, Mississippi teaching at my friend Tammy Brahan's awesome yoga studio. Tammy is such a great lady. I taught in Hattiesburg over a year ago and she and I had never met but she had read my book and invited me to teach here. We became fast friends, staying up too late at night and talking about life, yoga, relationships and authentic living. As soon as we saw each other this time, it was the same- like no time had passed, we jumped into the thick of "all that is going on." It is cool to have connections like this. For me they are at the heart of what Anusara Yoga has given me.

So, it may be obvious, but I have not written a lot because I have been in a bit of a whirlwind. I got home on Wednesday and taught that night and then Thursday was full of laundry, packing, a therapy appointment, my classes at Westgate, and an organizational meeting regarding Juan Amigo's upcoming visit. WOW. (Jesse, Alice, Brigitte, me and Kelly were all there and so that is we became the chair people of the committee. Stay tuned, because they are in charge of further reorganizing all of us and soliciting specific help from you all!)

Then on Friday at 6:30am I left for the airport to fly to Mississippi. Class went well last night. I am working all weekend with the "Building a Temple of the Body the Theme." So we began last night with foundations and working with basics of Inner and Outer Spiral to make a solid foundation in the hips. (yes, those of you following the method I could have worked with Open to Grace and Set the Foundation and I did that also but I really wanted to do a good hip opening class and so Inner and Outer Spiral was a must.)

This morning's class will be a basic standing pose class headed towards introductory back bends. I think this afternoon we get into inversions and forward bends. Like many workshops the group is mixed level and mixed in experience. Lots of folks there attend classes regularly at Tammy's studio and lots do not. So, like always, I endeavor to teach to the middle- while giving some advances options and some modifications. Always fun. Always challenging.

Also, tonight is a potluck, which is always a fun cultural experience in the Deep South. For instance, who knew cornbread could be made into salad? Not me. But last year someone brought cornbread salad, which is, I was told, a very common Mississippi dish and supposedly quite tasty. I did not sample it due to the bacon bits involved but in general, bacon bits, if you eat them, do make most things taste good and I do like cornbread. (For me, though, hot with butter and honey is the way to eat it. YUM)

I think I am going to have to do a whole potluck entry sometime. Like in Tucson, lots of vegan and raw food options abound. I bet you could use a potluck as a kind of Rorschach analysis of the group or local kula... (What does this say about the potluck we had in San Marcos where all we had were cookies? Or about our recent potluck competition that got started on the blog?)

Well, I just do not have the time to dive into that further. I must bathe and get ready to teach.