Fly, Away!

A little something from this morning's practice:

There is a fly in my room and it's been here since yesterday, likely let in during the couple of hours I had my door open because the weather was nice. I've pretty much thought not to just all-out kill it like I normally would. As I was finishing my practice in savasana, the fly was buzzing around and landing on me. I would invariably shake the offended limb and the fly would zoom around and find another place to land on me.

After a few go-arounds of that, I thought, "What if I didn't shake it off? What problem would there be? Probably not much of one." So the next time it landed, I didn't shake. I "forced" my muscles to stay still. I steeled myself against the sensation of those six tiny legs skittering around on my skin, then just let it continue. It started to tickle. I laughed and then decided that laughter was a good place to end my morning practice.

The Watcher

I have now been back in Japan for a week.

The past couple of weeks have been about observing. Hell, the last few months have been about just observing, listening, taking note and learning how I read things.

I find myself continuing to ease into being able to let what is be what is in my practice. I like to have vigorous, challenging practices, but I also appreciate practice, period and like having a focused introspective practice as well. I worry a lot that I'm being too easy on my body and that I'm letting its fitness slip, but this year has been very internally focused and I must tend to that part of myself as well.

Making It Through

Well, I've survived the travel home, even with the extra layover time due to a delay in San Francisco. The situation wasn't ideal and I had to run to make my connection, which five others and I missed thanks to the messed up departure situation out of SFO.

Actually, the whole trip was a practice of listening to my body and taking care of some things before they become a problem. With the delayed departure and botched connection, I had another chance to work on maintaining calm and patience. I feel really good about how I handled the whole deal, even with a vocal and disgruntled woman trying to get everyone riled up and mix it up and squeeze what she could from the airline. She seemed pretty unsuccessful at getting everyone worked up.

I was the first of the group through the line to get rebooked and two of the others (including crabby woman) made it through before my stuff was sorted out. When it was all said and done, the clerk thanked me for my patience and understanding. It seemed a little more than just the standard customer service line. Once I got on the plane, I was seated in economy plus right by the bulkhead, on an uncrowded plane, being the only one in my row. I don't think the others were seated in economy plus.

At the end of it all, the effort was rich in rewards, the most important one being the way I was able to act during that whole situation. That pleased me.