Yoga Field Trip

Well the yoga field trip was certainly fun. Although our plans were thwarted when we arrived at Yoga Vida 707 and no one was there to teach the class. So Gioconda had the great idea to go over to Castle Hill for Selena's Focus on Form class. That was great to see what she is doing on Fridays since I teach that class on Wednesdays. Gioconda and I had both had an extra dose of caffeine that morning thinking we were starting off with Hot Vinyasa and at one point I looked over at her and said, "Had I known it was a Focus on Form morning I would have stayed away from that coffee!" But other than that it was great. And I enjoyed taking a class in the room I normally teach in because it gives me insight into the student's perspective which is always interesting.

Then we went to Daily Juice for Smoothies and made our way to Dharma Yoga. I had never been to Dharma Yoga before and it is a beautiful studio. It has such an intentional mood there and the Sanieh did a really great job. She took a nice and somewhat gentle journey through some twisting postures towards what she called Yogi Dandanasa arm balance. We call it something else like hummingbird. No wait. We have had this discussion and now I cannot remember how it is listed on our syllabus. But no matter... long story short, or perhaps a short story made long by now... my hips were nice and open and wow, were my quads tired from A LOT of time in those warrior poses. Also fun was that Terra was there as was Charlie L. who is an Ansuara Yoga teacher who now teaches at Dharma. Nice small yoga world, eh?

Both Sanieh and Salena have lovely teaching presences, beautiful practices and very open warm hearts that shine through in their classes. It was a fun morning.

After that I got my hair trimmed, had a phone conference with Noah, and then with Christy about my book. We made it all the way through the edits and so now I ought to be able to knock them out this weekend and send the manuscript to Juan Amigo for his review. Then I implement his suggestions and back and forth until- voila!- a book one day will appear in our hot little hands!

It is a funny thing writing a book because there is a huge birthing process that takes place. There is definitely the gestation period where I am kind of antsy with the ideas as they are circulating around in me. Then there is the process of just sitting down and writing and writing and writing. As an author this is the most potent and thrilling part of the creative process for me. This is, as an author, "the push." But to make that "push" become a product, so much else is actually involved and so many other people are involved. So what is weird is that once my "push" has been made, so to speak, a certain amount of my enthusiasm has waned and in many ways the momentum is in other people's hands. And then there are little nitty gritty things that have to get done that are tedious and made even more so because my enthusiasm is a different volume.

For instance, with my first book, I had the experiences I wrote about in 2000, I wrote the book in 2001, it was completed in 2002 and was published in 2003. By the time it came out, I was sort of well on the other side of "the push" and all the juiciness of that particular process.

In the case of this book I turned in the original manuscript a year ago and now we are midway through the editing process and so what was interesting was reading what I wrote now that it is no longer so fresh. And yet, reading it,I was like, "Wow, this is good!"

I remember one time going to hear Robert Bly speak. He had a book that had just come out and it was a talk that was supposed to be about that book. A few minutes into his talk, he told the group that he was not interested in talking about this recently published book, he wanted to talk about the book he was currently working on. I remember thinking that was weird and I was disappointed, but now I totally get it. He was birthing another book and the one that was "in process" was where the juice was.

Anyway- since many people have been asking me "What is up with the book" that is what is up. And it is about yoga. The only thing I really care much about. Working Title: My Body is a Temple, My Heart is the Shrine: Using the Principles of Anusara Yoga to Build a Life of Practice, a Temple of the Body and a Personal Connection With Grace.

Time to bathe. Teaching at Bodhi at 10.