Today I took notes.
Lots,
and lots,
of notes. As the apprentice, (Insert Donald Trump Joke Here) part of my job is to diligently take notes during class, and transcribe them later to be circulated to the group. Thus, I posses an epic trifecta of learning. First I listen to the information being taught, then I write it down, and lastly I re-read and type it into a Word Document. Choose which learning style you like most. I get all three. Which incidentally was something we learned about today. So I guess I am an audial, tactile AND visual learner. When I was younger I believe it was called ADD.
Most importantly though, I TAUGHT MY FIRST SEQUENCE TODAY! Ah yes, the lovely and vital Sun Salutation A. I'm not quite off book yet, due to lack of Sanskrit memorization, but it is a fantastic feeling to have my first instructional experience completed. As a group, we cycled through Sun A about fifteen times, instructed first by the two teachers, and then by each student chosen at random by Marc.
Throughout class we demonstrated and dissected twenty poses, (I got to demonstrate Down Dog, and Pyramid Pose) offering suggestions of modifications and adjustments. I won't lie, learning the Sanskrit is tough business. There are Danda's and Uttana's and Bhujanga's! Parsva's sound like Parshva's and Shiv sounds are Shav's! I don't know if I'm Virabhadrassana-ing or shiving someone. Am I preparing myself for unifying serenity or prison fights?
During lunch break a few of us walked to Downtown Crossing by way of new Ryan Reynolds movie set. Yeah, no big deal, we just hung out and watched them film a car chase for a minute before we were allowed to cross the street. Then at DTXing one of my fellow students who doesn't live in the city gave a bum two bucks when he begged her as she was getting change back from lunch. He explained he was starving and needed food. She gave him a dollar, and then he said well how about two dollars, so she forked it over. He immediately turned around to the convenience stand beside us and purchased a two dollar scratch ticket. Another concept we discussed today was balance and wholeness. With abundance, there is also barrenness. With innocence, must also come depravity. It was jarring to see it so closely juxtaposed within such a short time-frame.
To end practice Rebecca had us each choose a colorful card from a deck she offered up to the group. She told us we would pull the card that we needed to have, that we should reflect on it, and then bring it back tomorrow. My card is about forgiveness.
Jeez is she using The Force on us or what? This is something I've been thinking about all summer long. As humans, we sometimes put ourselves through a lot of needless crap in order to...Well, honestly I'm not sure why we do it. We carry other peoples bullshit drama around, and allow ourselves to be marginalized by those that aren't even deserving of our time. Often, we feel there isn't much we can do to change things, if those involved are family, friends, or coworkers for example. Forgiving those who treat us poorly, and forgiving ourselves for allowing ourselves to be treated poorly may not change the treatment, but it can change our outlook and reactions to it. Am I getting too airy fairy here? Maybe I should crack a beer or something. For realz though, I'm finished worrying about the perceptions of others. If someone is treating me like I am an asshole, it is probably because they themselves are assholes. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm an awesome person and not someone of the asshole persuasion. So, that is their deal. Negativity is no longer my cross to bear. That door is closed. That door is closed because I took a chance and chose to step through it while it was open. And I think, for me, that is what this whole thing is all about.
There was a beautiful sunset tonight.
