practice, new apartment

It's only been a few days since I posted, but so much has gone on. Words can't capture what is really going on here for me. Like walking out of the new apartment this morning and just lighting up inside due to the colors, smells, and sounds. The devotees doing pooja, chanting and cirling the three temples we walk by and the cows being milked in the street. Sometimes my heart buckles a bit under the weight and ease of this place. I could go on and on.

BTW, the street lights being out was a power outage. Not a daily thing. :)

We shifted, as they call moving here, on Sunday into a very nice apartment. It is much more than I ever expected as far as my living situation goes. We really didn't have much in the way of choice because Gokulam, the area of Mysore we are in, is packed to the gills with ashtangis looking to take advantage of the best weather of the year. It's been between 70 and 80 everyday, probably dropping into the 50s and 60s at night. The apartment in on the 1st floor, which is what they call the 2nd floor here, of a beautiful house. We are the first Westerners that the family have rented to and though the Father seemed a bit reluctant the son and daughter appear to be quick happy we're there. At the prompting of our host we also have Savita, a young servant, coming to clean the apartment and do our laundry every day for 2 hours. I'm a bit put off by the concept of a "servant" for many reasons, but when in Rome, right? I'll write on that later.

There is so much more, but the apartment doesn't have an internet connection and I'm now posting from Anu's internet cafe (which is fab, btw) so I don't want to go on for too long as we've got many things to do this afternoon.

I do want to touch on practice a bit, though that deserves a post in an of itself. When we registered on Sunday I inquired with Sharath about were I should stop letting him know that Matthew has me stopping at Baddha Konasana. His relpy was come at 7 am and we'll see. So Monday we were there at 7 and began. I had a phenomenal practice, one of the best ever, until Baddha Konasana came and went and I had to piece together the rest of the primary. It's been close to a year since I did full primary (I took a step back when I started with Matthew) and being true to my desire to let go of ambition I have not studied the proceeding asana since then. I made it through the whole thing, even doing the most poorly manifest Urdhva Dhanurasanas EVER, without being noticed by Sharath or Saraswathi. Not doing Urdhva for a year and attempting 3 five count breath ones was a bit much! It was great, but there was a bit of fumbling to say the least. I, for the first time, got that bind in Baddha Padmasana! Of course, I'm paying for it today as my right knee is way out wack. More on why that gets my knee another time.

I didn't think it possible, but today's practice picked it up a notch. Guruji yelled out "One More!" and I found myself rolling my mat out right in front of his chair, next to the stage. Gulp! He was out and about in the crowd making adjustments until I finished my Suryas and then he sat down right in front of me and stayed there until I finished Parsvottanasana.

Grrrr!

There was a great deal more to this post but I just lost it and I need to get on with the day. I'll try to recapture the rest of the post later, maybe after dinner. The next post should be some pictures. We'll see if I can upload them.

All the best to you all, ~G