Monday, April 4, 2011

Day 24 - If It Feels Good

Simone used to be my favorite yoga teacher.  The first class I took with her, she smiled from ear to ear the entire time.  This cheerful countenance was immovable, throughout all of our sweating, stretching and trembling.  My first thought about the excessive dental display (perfection not withstanding) was WTF?!?!?  But then I fell into the rhythm of classes with Simone and the cheshire cat grin became as welcome and anticipated as a rum drink in the tropics.

Many teachers handle multi-level classes by giving layered instructions.  Something like, "level one take child's pose, level two do chaturanga, level three do 10 pushups balancing on the fingertips of your left hand and level four, time to levitate!"

Simone's multi-level approach was simply,  "If it feels good...", delivered with the aforementioned smile.

"If it feeeels good...." 

God, I miss Simone.

In addition to being a yoga teacher and a dancer, Simone was a dress designer and seamstress.  Before class she could be overheard using words like "bodice",  "flounce", and "something pretty".

Everything about Simone's class was pretty.  Even the way she called out "You can do it!" during ab work.  Not that I really could, but I liked hearing that Simone thought so.

During savasana Simone went around the large class adjusting heads as we lay in final relaxation.  If we didn't need adjusting, she pressed our shoulders down or stroked our foreheads.  Ah!  Simone! 

That's when I started buying lottery tickets.  My plan was to have Simone come to the house every morning for a private yoga class.  Once I won The Big One she wouldn't even have to say, "If it feels good..." because she would be focusing on me and me alone, so everything would feel good!  All of those smiles just to light up my morning.  Having won the lottery bigtime, I would pay her $2,000 for every morning class.  After a year I would double that amount.  I would give Simone an all-expense paid vacation to Hawaii, including a yoga clothing budget so that she could sport the newest and coolest in yoga wear and always have something pretty, with a little flounce.

1 comment:

  1. There's an interesting theme threading through this blog.......it's the "Not that I really could, but I liked hearing that Simone thought so." As I read the blog, I keep imagining you being perfect at doing yoga, but you keep surprising me by taking inventory of your imperfections. But in spite of them, you keep persisting, learning, and benefiting. And that's a reminder that it's all happening the way it should.

    ReplyDelete