how i see myself progress through "yoga moments"

everything is always a two way street, what you put in you get back somehow, maybe two fold... think of the last time you had a moment you thought you would remember for the rest of your life, and that moment becomes a reference point for the days to come.


i had such a moment as many others in india when i hurt my knees trying to do the padmasana. oh yes the lotus pose. the famous pose with the feet on opposite thighs, and yes your ankles are so flexible that the soles of your feet are looking up at the ceiling. it was the second week at the ashram on lord shiva's sacred soil in trimbak, the first yoga lesson of the day. we did preparatory stretches for this amazing meditative pose and then everyone attempted to do it. like hypnosis, one third get hypnotized, one third do not, and the rest kind of float in between but not completely in either state. i just pushed too hard. i wanted to be in the one third that could do it and it did not happen. what did proceed to take place was this slight "click" sound and i could not walk straight for the entire week.

in retrospect it was a great experience. ı used to wonder how there were people who could do a split and then lay their chest on the ground. how could a human being be so flexible?!! but then i saw the same person have a temper tantrum because someones laundry did not finish on time and theirs was being compromised. flexibility in the limbs did not extend to the personality. but here's the deal. for the past 8 months i have been in istanbul, and the struggles that are brought with moving, adjusting, making new friends, settling in and starting a whole new life, i discovered i could do the padmasana without a problem.

interesting eh?

i was giving a yoga lesson and teaching the variations of meditative poses one of which was the padmasana. i WAS going to say here's what the padmasana looks like in theory but i am not unable to do it YET when flip flop my soles were looking up at me resting contentedly on my thighs. i rushed home to simply check if it was really true. i had not even tried doing the padmasana since i got back form india let alone practice now and then. i had not attempted it since then.

the body is an amazing piece of work. i surprised myself the other day by chanting "ohm" all day long. it started with wanting to cleanse the energy of the apartment i moved into and then i chanted it all day until i got hungry. i had a moment.

when chatting with my friend hasan the other night he said how he wants more moments to remember. he said he wants to live moments. we went hiking in the greens of polonezkoy and it felt like i was a piece, an enormous piece of love that my body could not hold. and that moment was truly unforgettable. it was a yoga moment, one of the many that i am having in istanbul.