Shhhh...Don't Tell

Apparently, the boy band is back.  And, don't tell a soul, but I am loving this little ditty.



It's horribly great and reminds me of being 8 and in love with the original boy band below:

Just a regular Wednesday night

With this guy





And this guy

It just doesn't seem right

Today I spent from 9 to 1:30 administering  a standardized Math test to a group of 3rd graders.  We took a 20 minute break for lunch, but other than that we tested for over 4 hours.  I was ready to jump out of the window.  I know if my attention span had long since run out, then the poor 8 year olds taking this test must have been fried.


It just doesn't seem right.

An engaged sister!!!

The Deets

As our move to Oregon draws nearer, I am beginning to realize that what seemed like a daunting task is slowly becoming more and more manageable.  This time a year ago, I had just found out about being accepted to the University of Oregon.  We owned a house (and a bunch of other junk), had two secure jobs, friends and families firmly rooted here, and not to mention we had never even been to the Northwest...how could we even dream of moving there when so many things had us so tethered here?

Fast-forward to now.  Our house has sold, we've gotten rid of a ton of our cumbersome stuff, we've put in our notices of resignation, friends and families will miss us but understand, we've got a down payment on a moving company contract, and fairly solidified plans to sojourn across the country on July 31.

I am reminded of a moment this past October in Portland, as we coffeed with an old friend from Carboro, Rafael.  He made the east-west coast move about 6 years ago, and as we prodded him with our questions and fears about making such a huge move he simply said "You just do it.  You do the deets" (deets, being details, for those of you who don't speak Rafael).  And never has any advice stuck more than that. 

We could live our whole lives never moving forward for fear of the intricacies and details that we would face along the path.  When you have to do something, you don't fear it.  You just do it.  You deal with it and you make it work.  Then it happens.  When you encounter bumps along the way, you handle them.  You do what you have to do and rather than butting heads with your resistance, you embrace the challenge and move forward. Thus is the journey, and doing the deets is all a part of it.

A Demonstration is Coming

One of the interesting things about Bikram yoga is that there is a competitive aspect to it.  It is something that causes me a bit of guilt in my practice because in my understanding, yoga should not be competitive.  This lack of competition is one of the things that initially drew me to yoga.  I'd spent so many years of my life competing in the theatre world.  I was so sick of it all: competing for parts, competing for attention, competing to be heard in a room full of charismatic people.  Finding an arena of my life in which I did not have to compete was such a relief, and ultimately my yoga practice served as a safe haven in which I could truly be myself without having to think about whether or not I was better than someone else at thing A, B, or C. Yoga was a place where I could deeply concentrate on myself, and to do that I did have have to compete.
However, Bikram would say otherwise.  He would say that for thousands of years, yogis in India competed with one another in their postures.  He would also tell you that if you ever hope to get better in your practice, you must compete with yourself.  And, why does it matter whether or not one excels in his or her practice?  Well, with deeper opening and discovery in the asanas (postures) comes deeper opening and discovery in the mind and self. Competition is also a basic human instinct that motivates and inspires us to excel in this way. Because of this, every year Bikram yogis all of the world compete in the Yoga Asana Championship and someone somewhere is crowned champion. Here are this years USA National Champions:

I guess this whole competition thing is getting to be a big deal in the Bikram community because Bikram Yoga Durham is holding a mock "competition" in a few weeks.  They are calling it a "demonstration" because no one will actually be judging per se, unless you count watching and comparing as judging.  It will be conducted the same way a real competition would be; for example...

Well, you don't think I would explain all of this to you with a punchline, do you?  Here's the punchline, friends:  I will be participating in the yoga demonstration.

I'm a little nervous.  Not only because people will be watching me and silently judging me, but also because I will most likely have to reactivate some competitive part of my being to participate.  This, no doubt, will be like unleashing a starving beast that has been shackled deep within the dark dungeons of my ego.  Once unchained, who knows what will happen?

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