Blood on the Mat

At practice, my teacher will watch me sometimes struggle over and over with something I'm not getting, getting more and more aggravated, swearing sotto voce, eventually wearing myself out. Then he'll wander over and remind me that to achieve a state of yoga, one needs to act or perform with a state of dispassion, with non-attachment.

Yesterday, I was doing my umpteenth try at Karandavasana. After toppling over once again, I noticed a smudge of red on my rug. Hmm. That's blood. My rug had worn a raw spot on my elbow, enough that I was bleeding a little. That's cool, that's a mark of valor, right? I'm not too attached, see, my elbow is becoming detached.

Yesterday was a do over day. I couldn't get in a number of the second series poses on my first attempt. Bakasana B, Dwi Pada, Tittibhasana B, Karanda, all took at least two tries to get into, some of them a lot more. That got old real quick. I had this new plan where I would stop practice whenever I got to a pose that I couldn't do. The down side was that I was eventually able to do each of them, so I had to keep going. Karanda was the least successful. I'm satisfied if I can land it, but once again, my landing consisted of bouncing off of the ground and rebounding back up onto the arms. Not one of the more accepted approaches. Tim even came over to remark that he'd never seen that particular strategy before. Just goes to show how little he watches me. I've done that a bunch of times.

I did get towed back into my ankles for Kapotasana but it wasn't as easy and carefree as the other times. Not sure what was different but I had a lot more compression in my low back as the hands got pulled back. No pain and I haven't developed soreness afterwards but it was definitely at the edge of what I was willing to go for.


I may get a practice tomorrow but probably not. I work tonight so I can't get there until 9:00. My wife made me a doctors appointment for 11:00 though, so even if I do get in an abbreviated practice, I'll be going to the doctor all sweaty and what not from practice. I don't know what the appointment is for, I think it could be a general physical. I had one of those once and I was fine, so why do I need to do another one? It's about time for me to have to start doing all of those health maintenance tests, like regular prostate exams, colonoscopies, all that good stuff. Can't wait.

Laxboy didn't play and his team got beat pretty good. They had to call a goalie up from the fifth grade team to play in his place. The kid got used pretty good. There's a huge physical difference between fifth graders and eighth graders, so I thought the kid was heroic for even agreeing to do it. Hopefully Jake will have healed enough to be able to play on the east coast tournament he has in a couple of weeks. He's milking the injury for all he can in terms of missing school but we're not going for it any more.

Have to go to sign out rounds and pick up the beeper. I have coverage for the ER tonight, so no telling how things will go