Vanity Made Me Do It

For the past month or so, I have been making a video about old age, illness and death, but you know, with a sense of humour.  It might be a total disaster in the end but I am enjoying making it immensely.  The thread running through it is my yoga practice.  Oh dear god no!  I know that is what you are saying.  And who can blame you since watching someone doing their yoga practice is pretty dull stuff unless you are Kino MacGregor in her short shorts.

It is all in how you extend your big toe, I swear.

In case you were wondering, I am not Kino MacGregor.

It has been quite a challenge to make the yoga shots interesting.  My effort to do that has led to all sorts of funny business because, you see, my yoga practice is quite wrapped up - for good and ill - in my ideas about old age, illness and death.  It is my way of aging gracefully and healthfully.  And truth be told, it also is tied up in my vanity.  My biceps and triceps are, by far, looking hotter these days than they ever did when I was 25.  In fact, my whole body is looking pretty darned toned these days.  Fifty chaturanga dandasana a day have to have some effect, I guess.

So, I thought I would explore this double-edged sword of my practice.  In video format.

The temptation not to include shots of me falling over, missing the mark and otherwise looking like a klutz is strong.  Just the shots of getting both legs behind my head, please.  We'll see.  Meanwhile, at teacher training, the anatomy instructor, who is herself a dancer, made several in-joke references to me as if she believed I was a ballet dancer.  Once I understood what she was getting at (wait, what? is she speaking French to me? why?), I felt a huge surge of....what?  Pride?  Happiness? Amazement?  Well, whatever it was, it wasn't very healthy.  Time to look at that shot of me toppling out of Virabhadrasana A (fer chrissakes!) again....

No worries, Kino!  Unless there is a sudden demand for videos of sweaty, red-faced, middle aged women muddling through Primary series, your career and shorts are safe with me.  But you, dear reader, can begin to look forward to it now.