Confessions of a Yoga Hussy....the beginning

My confessions.
About my love affairs.
With words.
With people.
With images.
With the ordinary.
(which is not)
With life .
And it's oxymorons.
And,yes,yoga....




The Ashtanga Yoga School of Philadelphia( http://www.aysphiladelphia.com/)where I practice- honored me by asking that I write something for the website as "featured student".
This is it.
And so it begins....


Confessions of a “Yoga Hussy”
I did not choose this ashtanga practice- the practice found me.
Never in this lifetime have I been a Flipper,Flyer or Bendy Barbie.My mother often tells the story of my early childhood dance lessons and how it took a year for me to finally master a cartwheel.

I live and breathe fashion- went to design school in New York,worked on 7th.Avenue.All flash and glam.
I  disco roller skated,went to the gym,pumped iron,did aerobics,studied tae kwon do and took up spin class.Once I got a yoga video out of the library and attempted “Tree” and “Mountain” pose- not too successfully.
A friend suggested  “Bikram yoga” -I liked the intensity. That studio brought in a teacher from New York and made the switch to Ashtanga. Within no time this was to evolve into a Mysore room.Not quite sure what that would really mean,I googled some images and thought “what the hell is going on in there?”
That was over a dozen years ago.
The practice found me.
And I found my practice.

I never did a backbend or headstand until I was more than several decades into this life.At AYS I am often in a room where I have tattoos older than most of the lovely people practicing beside me.When an asana looks so impossible (and many do)
I think “I’ll save that one for my next life.”
The breath- yes,that natural habit we all have- has so much power.And yet,I STILL cannot harness it!
The bhandas! The roots/locks- still so often elude my attempts.
But I will continue to try.
Nothing is perfect.
Or permanent.

It is difficult to articulate all that transpires and transforms from practicing Ashtanga.The blogoshpere and Facebook are chockablock with those perhaps more eloquent than I on this matter.However, for me,this practice changes everything-internally,externally,redefines ego and humility ,discourages competition and encourages introspection,learning and re-learning.
Again.
And again.
It sometimes shouts but more often it whispers - very quietly.
So as is life on and off the mat.

I have been studying and “flowing on the crooked path” with David Garrigues shortly after he settled in Philadelphia.