A shout-out

OK, I'm tired, it's past my blogging hour, and, like that extra vodka martini, I may regret this post in the morning. I had an interesting class, though, and I want to give the teacher a shout-out for handling things so well.

Y'all ever had a circus class? Well, that's what this was. No other way to describe it. Internally, I was a little mixed-up going in, and the class itself matched the emotional roller-coaster inside. First, the heaters were wacky. At the start of class, they were blowing really fast, hot air. Suddenly, we heard one give out. Almost instantly, it was cool in there (an aside: so much energy must be consumed in heating that room). The teacher had that to contend with the heat all class, but she did manage to keep it cooking.

Then, there were two newbies, and they were all over the place. One was fidgety, noisy, and needed a lot of attention. The other one.... fainted. Yes, she fainted. During Eagle pose, she got up to leave the room, grabbed the wall and started sliding down.

I gotta give the teacher so much credit. First of all, she knew something was up with this student. During half-moon, she asked the student if she was OK, and actually told her to sit down until the color came back to her face. But the student ignored her and persisted, and a couple of poses later, bam. There she was, all fainty.

I also don't know how the teacher managed to get there so fast. The woman started sliding, and the teacher was right there. She even got kneed in the calf--I saw the blossoming bruise afterward.

And that's all just the first three postures! The rest of class continued to be a circus--people running in and out, talking during class, etc--and I was distracted much more easily than usual. Another highlight was a really noisy guy next to me. He was moaning like he was either in extreme pain or experiencing extreme pleasure (why are those noises so close on the food chain, by the way? Shouldn't they be radically different?). A couple of times during the class, I looked at the teacher, hoping she'd say something to quiet the Moaner. But she kinda had her hands full with everything else that was going on.

Anyway... the primary purpose of this post was to give a shout-out to the teacher. She did more than just get us through the postures. The woman fainted during the first set of Eagle pose, and before the instructor had even come back into the room, she was saying, "OK! Second set! Arms up over the head." Such a rockstar. Yay for good teachers.

Best of all, by the time we got to the floor, my mind had quieted down, and I didn't even notice the Moaner. That's what it's all about, right? We can't spend our time wishing the external conditions were perfect. Let's learn how to be present... moaning and all!