A Long Time Coming

I was well enough to return to yoga this week, returning to the same "restorative yoga" class that we (Dave, Judi, and I) had taken before I got sick. It's a very gentle introduction to yoga, intended to teach people how to do yoga after they've had some type of injury.

Shavasana, corpse pose, is one of my favorite parts of yoga--so much so that I almost take it personally when people fall asleep during shavasana. I love the sensation of pretending to be dead. The Brain loves it, too, because it is pure awareness without expectation. Nothing ahead. Nothing to worry about, past or present.

At the end of shavasana, our instructor reads a poem. This week, she read this poem by Rumi:

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

What's not to love about that?

Working back through the week, Dave and I spent the weekend at the studio.

On Sunday, I spent six hours glazing and didn't quite finish one of the cells. (I remembered, just today, that I had intended to use glass bits in some of the pieces, a way to add more dimension to the glazing. I'll have to go back and reconsider some of my glaze choices.) My mother stopped by the studio for a visit, a surprise, but nice. It gave me the opportunity to take a few-minutes break from glazing.  Sunday was also Kelly's birthday, so we took her some purple tulips and some pieces that will eventually be part of a cell that I'm making for her as her eventual real present (since I can't seem to finish the glazing process for any one of them yet, they take so long to finish).

On Saturday Dave and I (and Hannah, the sculptor from the studio) made a quick run to the local pottery supply shop to buy a handful of stilts and a couple new glazes. (We have sixty-plus glazes available at the studio for our use, but sometimes something catches my eye. I brought home two Amaco glazes, Vert Luster and Opal Luster.) I also spent the day glazing. The Brain is having a hard time wrapping itself around the glazing process for these things, so it's slow going.

On Friday I saw a new doctor. After my last disastrous visit with a doctor who I will never, ever see again, I asked around for recommendations for a new primary care physician. This woman was highly recommended by my therapist, so I decided to give her a try. She seems nice, but it's hard to tell from a nine minute visit. (At the old practice, the one with the shitty doctors, you got 15-30 minutes. So I guess I'm going to have to decide between quantity and quality--only it's hard to judge quality after nine minutes.) I'll probably give her another go.  I was also supposed to see my therapist in the afternoon, but she wasn't feeling well and called to cancel my appointment.

On Thursday I went to the dentist for a cleaning. I was dreading it because my last cleaning was with the most brutal hygienist ever, but it went well with a different hygienist. (I actually told the office manager that I never wanted to be scheduled with the brutal hygienist again and I don't know if it's a thing, but she didn't even question it, just rescheduled all my future cleanings.)

On Wednesday...gosh. I can't think that far back. Or, no. I think I was at the studio again. I was there with Judi, but we ran into Lynn and her little charge, Lali. Lali is three years old and so imaginative and knowledgeable that I had to stop glazing and spend a few minutes just talking and playing with her. Lali had made a small clay turtle and we talked about how she could fly with magic, but the turtle had wings hidden under her shell.  I petted the turtle and talked to her and Lali answered back in the turtle's voice. After they left, Judi commented that I was good with little kids. I am, but in small doses. So long as I don't have any real responsibilities concerning them, I am a-ok with little kids. The minute I have to take some responsibility for them, all the fun goes out of it and I find myself falling into the patterns, many of them not very healthy, that I learned as a child from the people who were responsible for me. Not good.

And that was my last week. I'm sure I've left out a few things here and there, like, say, the chili dogs we had for dinner, the numerous coffee runs, the trip to Target to buy mundane things like paper towels and soy milk, the book I finished reading (Coreyography by Cory Feldman). You know, the little details that make up a life.

Oh! And I'm supposed to, as an assignment from my therapist, think of three things per day that make me happy, so here goes:

1. Saba finding new ways to snuggle with me, pictured here:


2. Chocolate-covered pretzels. Yum.

3. Re-watching episodes of "Call the Midwife" on Netflix. That show is wrenching and lovely all at the same time.