Holiday

Ah, Ladies' Holidays. They have such an inconvenient way of appearing when you least wish them to arrive. For instance, in the middle of a time set specifically aside for intensive ashtanga practice. I suppose I could fake it, but unlike some others who claim the whole notion of Ladies' Holidays is a remanent of the yoga patriarchy, I think they make good sense. Or at least my body tells that every time I shout "Down with the Patriarchy" and haul up into shoulder stand and then come right back down because it just feels so wrong.

So, no early morning #7 train this morning. Instead a leisurely rise and now I sit, nursing a cup of tea and my slightly overstretched hamstrings. In thinking about how our bodies sometime remind us that things will not always go as planned*, this may be a good time to share this wonderful blog, Needled, and specifically this blog post. Both were written by a Scottish woman named Kate Davies who is a writer and designer of knitwear. She also is young (30s?) and is recovering from a stroke she had in 2010.

She writes beautifully and very movingly about her recovery interspersed with gorgeous photographs of Scotland and her knitting projects. Today's post (the one linked above) is especially worth reading. In a strange way, one doesn't even have to had a stroke to understand exactly what she is getting at - you just need to get old(er). So, if you find yourself of the nature to get old, go take a look.

* I don't mean to suggest that the minor inconvenience of my getting my period in the middle of a yoga workshop can be directly compared to having a stroke and subsequent years of recovery and possible permanent disability. It was just by way of leading in...but you knew that, right?