snowballasana

As you might have heard, the Southeast experienced a rare snowstorm yesterday, which resulted in up to seven inches in parts of my area. The snow ruled the day, as it very well should have - I'm a firm believer in anything that has the capacity to bring out the inner child. Even my impatience was fun; the first flakes didn't fall until around 3.00pm, and until that point I wandered to the front door, and then to the back, squinting at the green of pine trees thinking the contrast would help me to better see the starting moment. I made soup, baked cookies, checked outside. Downloaded a few new yoga podcasts, stirred the soup, sampled a cookie, and checked outside again. Wrote in my journal, checked Facebook to see if any local friends had posted that the snow had started at their places, and checked outside. My mom called - the snow had started at her place. A friend called - he was creeping along the interstate a few hours away, so he definitely had it. Another friend posted that she had snow, and she lives only ten minutes away.

FINALLY we got our turn, and everything but all things snow stopped. Yesterday evening and into the night, I was running and playing in the snow with my husband and dog. We'd go out, he and I would pelt each other with snowballs (which the dog would try to catch), and then we'd come in to dry off and recover, after which we'd go right back out again. It was bliss!

And through all of that, I never managed to make it to my mat - which was exactly as yesterday needed to be. For a while, I told myself I *should* go through the motions, but every time I would decide to get up and do so, my husband would want to go back out into the snow. After the third time this happened, I realized it was more important to go with *that* flow instead of breaking it for a flow of asanas. Yoga teaches us to be present to the moment, to take things in, be right where we are; and I needed to be fully in the experience of yesterday - running, throwing snowballs, calling my husband a "jackleg" every time he popped me with one, laughing until I hurt, and taking in the beauty of snow-covered everything. Yesterday was a time to take my yoga off the mat.

That said, I might need to take it back to the mat for a bit before I go back out this morning. My muscles are seriously sore from all that play!