But I'm Pure Yoga

Went to sign up for boxing class and it was full. Waited too long to decide on what I wanted to do and missed an opportunity to participate in another class that incorporated boxing and still another boxing class at another gym. I don't think that I was meant to box today.

It was a perfect day for bicycling or maybe hot yoga but I finally decided to tackle the lawn so that I don't have to deal with it this weekend.

Went to my gentle yoga class and saw no sign of my 4'7 teacher, Donna, who frequently talks about not being able to do poses a certain way because of her short arms. I also did not see Donna's usual sub.

I see this woman walk towards the front of the class and I kind of recognize her. I'm pretty sure that it's the woman from another branch of my gym. I went to her class once last year when I was supposed to go to Yoga at the Confluence (where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers meet) but it rained hard that day and I opted to go to a yoga class at my gym thinking that few people would come out in the rain. Wrong. Her (Gloria) class was packed and I barely squeezed in.

As we arranged our mats, I heard Gloria say to Marissa, who teaches this hardcore Muscle Works class, I wish that I could sub for you but I'm pure yoga and she said this matter-of-factly as if she were saying her name or address and I remember when I went to her class before, I could tell that she was the yoga teacher by the way she was dressed and the way she moved.

Gloria: What kind of class do you want tonight?

Class: Silence...

Hmmm,  no one had ever asked that before....

At one point, she asked us to shake everything out and she was completely goofy with her movements which made us laugh. Yoga is not that serious, she said and she pretty much dropped science for the whole hour. When we did hip openers -- the hips are the junk drawer of the body.

We did some amazing stretches. We put our feet together, cupped our heads and leaned back for an amazing stretch. Ditto for making an okay sign with the fingers then grabbing that "okay" hand by the wrist then leaning in the direction of the "okay." Amazing.

And after we got through with all of those amazing stretches, our final pose was to make eagle arms. Just the arms. Seriously? This pose haunts me but when she saw me just cross my arms over my shoulders she said It's okay to do that... Then we got down on our mats and made eagle legs. Earlier in the program, we did half camel and it was kind of cool to do that pose halfway.

We got around to savasana and the tears started rolling. Guess I cleaned some junk out of the drawer... After namaste, Gloria thanked us and we thanked her and I saw Linda -- this older woman who is a workout machine. She takes Marissa's class, yoga then rides her bike home.

I asked her how often she exercises and she told me that her father says: Linda, you make coffee nervous...

As for Gloria, she is pure yoga. You can tell by her energy, what comes out of her mouth and the way she moves...