The Real World

There was a family and friends' picnic yesterday -- spearheaded by the patriarch, Charles, on my father's side of the family.

My sister-in-law visited and I haven't really sat down and had a hearty conversation with her in a while. Saw a cousin that I hadn't seen since junior high school and I was introduced to a cousin whose parents divorced when she was two. Because her mother moved to California, she didn't know any paternal relatives; what a trip -- not much different than my own trip of not really knowing a lot of my father's folks.

One of my younger cousins  said the same thing about not being familiar with many of the people at the picnic. It's kind of weird because I am more familiar with this cousin's sister than I am with her. Oh well, what can you do? As Maya Angelou said: When you know better, you do better.

My cousin, the patriarch, has unbelievable carpentry skills. He made a train for the kids! It was somewhat funny, though, because someone was driving it and she said that my cousin had too many rules about the operation of the train.

There was regular barbecue type food plus popcorn, snow cones, candy apples etc. When the call went out for homemade ice cream, I was like, ugh, but my cousin Chiquita's childhood friend was like Get some. You don't eat like this every day. We live in the real world... 

And the last part of her statement resonated with me a lot.

Adjust

Weight of the Rain, Crepe Myrtle

I remember two of The Four Agreements:

Don't make assumptions.

Be impeccable with your word.

Saw something on Joy of Yoga's Facebook page that moved me as well:

The Buddha gives us a skillful checklist:
Is it true?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind?
Is it the right time?

Practiced yoga tonight with Joy at the helm. She likes to have us use a strap to place around the ball of a foot and the back of our head. She calls it a hammock. Oddly enough, it's relaxing. Joy told us to take the time to find some good i.e. if the hammock didn't feel good, adjust.

Of course, I'm a hedonist-in-training so I love to hear stuff about finding something that feels good.

After our final pose, Joy talked about finding wisdom in The Velveteen Rabbit while reading it to her son -- something about not finding your authentic self until your hair has grown thin. LOL, I'll have to check it out of the library.

I'll have to check out Maya Angelou's Life Doesn't Frighten Me At All too. I've always found it moving...

Guess the hammock worked because after Namaste, no one rushed to move. Think we could have all rolled over and gone to sleep.

Faux Crux

Got home, took off my jewelry (earrings and necklace with the yoga pendant), took off my clothes, crawled under the covers and touched Sound of Invisible Water which is in my Relaxation, Deuter (Mostly) playlist.

Woke up at 5:21 p.m. and asked myself who had initiated the impending climbing session. Rolled out of bed, looked for my glasses then ate an almond butter and preserves sandwich then headed out.

I am hoarse and feeling foggy-headed. Thought the hoarseness might be a result of the bike ride through the floating white stuff. I don't have a full-blown cold but...

I managed to work my way up routes but not sure how.

As Patti tied in and I secured my Air Traffic Control device, we heard Frank tell James That's not the hard part; the next part is the hard part. Belayers say the darnedest things.

Came home and drew a bath because I thought salt water would make me feel better. I was surprised to see that Dr. Teal's Epsom salt now has a velcro seal. It's the kind of thing that makes me think only in America... It does seal the heck out of the bag though...

Been thinking about Maya Angelou. I often quote Angelou's When you know better, you do better to the 'Fugee.

That particular quote makes me have more compassion for myself. It's also a challenge to do better by others.

I've always remembered a line from Angelou's poem No Loser, No Weeper. She talks about losing things -- a dime or a doll.

"Now if I felt that way bout a watch and a toy,
What you think I feel about my lover-boy?..."

Let It Go On Its Way

Looked at Gloria and we started laughing -- a hold over from yesterday's laughter yoga class.

It was my first time going to laughter yoga and, with anything new, I had my reservations but I went. 

Before I entered the studio, I was captivated by the staircase. I love passageways and corridors.

The Way to Flex Fitness

What to say about laughter yoga? So funny. It was both what I expected and what I did not. One of the most powerful parts of laughter yoga was the laughing meditation -- think savasana but with peals of laughter. 

We were all lying down with our heads in the same direction. Gloria was next to me and just about caused my demise. Her intense laughter, soon joined by the intense laughter of others, made me absolutely lose it. I slapped my leg, stomped my foot, took my glasses off and said Oh my God a few times...

Emma, our laughter yoga leader, is really good. She guided us, beautifully, at the end of practice: If a thought comes, acknowledge it and let it go on its way...

Gloria had me chuckling again right before practice. She read funny quotes about mothers. She also had me laughing when she said that she didn't like her mother until she was around 40 since they had their differences and she also "confessed" to not being a perfect mother but said that she did the best that she could which reminds me of one of Oprah's favorite Maya Angelou quotes: when you know better, you do better. 

We started off in downward facing dog. Gloria said that we should feel warmth and I instantly felt the heat which was kind of nice since it was such a chilly morning. 

Get hot happy Gloria said as we folded over then she encouraged us to make a healthy forward fold by bending at the hips instead of bending at the back. 

I don't fold too much but I often think of what Madonna said: the more you do yoga -- the more your body opens up.

The View Leaving Flex Fitness

Doing Better

I went swimming yesterday even though my arms were still quite sore from Thursday's rock climbing. I completed about 13 laps but can't be sure since I misplaced my lap counter. I sometimes lose count even with the lap counter; c'est la vie.

I'm trying to decide if I should order a new ultra-cool counter or get a used one from Amazon like the one I lost. Maybe I should get a red one which would be a little harder to leave behind.

I went to swim at one of my favorite places which will now be known, from this point on, as "The Poo."

"The Poo" is almost my favorite watering hole but I would really like for the water to be a tad bit warmer. I hear that competitive swimmers like the water cold but cold water is not my cup of tea. I can't imagine why. Of course, I wasn't imagining why when I went to the Wohl center once and the water was very cold. Since I had traveled so far, I stubbornly went ahead and got in the shockingly cold water. Once in, it wasn't so bad since I was continuously moving around but I did have to tell the disappointed woman who had come for water aerobics and who followed me into the locker room to get my opinion about the water that, yes, the water was artic-like.

Mehlville's pool was pretty crowded yesterday. There were two girls from the school district's swimming team. Their black team swimsuits are rather cool with green panther tracks on the suit and swimming cap. The one girl's butterfly stroke is a thing of beauty to behold.

Several kids were taking swimming lessons and the ones who weren't were exuberantly jumping off the creaky diving boards. Twin five-year-olds, who had on bulky floating devices, got into the act and started jumping off the boards too. I was later surprised to see one twin treading water without her float suit. I wish that I had learned to swim as a child.

I also heard the swim team crew talking about how many calories they had possibly burned. I never thought about such things in high school. Although, I'm sure we burned quite a few calories playing basketball.

I also wish that I had paid better attention to nutrition and fitness before. Oprah Winfrey likes to report that Maya Angelou told her "when you know better, you do better." So, here's to doing better.