Day 25

If you go to yoga on a Sunday, be prepared for a sermon…


With six days left in April and six more times needed to make 20 sessions in the 30 days of April, I couldn't miss a day of yoga. That meant that I had to go today- a Sunday. I felt guilty that I was "skipping" church to make my 20 in 30 commitment, but went anyway.

I anticipated that the weekends would be crowded and I was right. Thirty or so bodies were squeezed in the studio with mat almost touching mat. I leaned over to my neighbor and asked, "Have you ever seen it so crowded?" To which she replied, "Oh, I've been here when the mats are touching. It's a little intimidating because you are constantly thinking, 'I don't want to fall on anyone.'" I suddenly became grateful for the two inches of privacy between me and my neighbors' mats. But that is where my gratitude ended.

Today's yoga instructor was a true "yogi". I had to chuckle when she bent down and chanted three times to the figure perched on the window sill. I wasn't laughing at her, I was just saying to myself, "Okay, here it is- the real die hard yogi who, unlike all the other instructors, is going to preach today. " I was chuckling because I was missing church only to find myself in another one.

Sure enough the yogi began talking about one of the beliefs of yoga: non-violence. She told the sermon tale of how she had to fumigate her apartment to kill hundreds of living creatures called fleas. This flea infestation also cost her a few inches of hair as she tried to provide less of a home for the little creatures. She spoke of her own hypocrisy in not following to the letter letting all creatures live, but it is hard to feel sympathy for dead fleas. 

Then the talk turned to eating animals. She insisted that she wasn't going to preach to us that we should all be vegan (too late), but did point out that eating vegan one day a week helped the environment more than driving a hybrid car. (Okay, maybe I will go vegetarian once a week.) I tucked that in the back of my mind.

The yogi preacher was wearing a pink t-shirt with "Let's Get Physical" written on it. Olivia Newton John's voice came into my head singing those words. I couldn't help it. I chuckled inside again, but that would be the last chuckling I did as the yogi preacher mercilessly took us through the most difficult poses I have tried. Like a "hell, fire, and brimstone" preacher, she laid it on us and wouldn't let up.

Sometime during all of this a roly poly bug scurried across the mat in front of me. My first instinct was to discreetly squash it. Then I thought of the yogi preacher's words: non-violence towards all. If this was applied to fleas, I am sure she meant it for roly poly bugs, too. As the bug came toward my mat I realized that if I hadn't heard those words today, I would not hesitate in squishing the ugly little thing. I wasn't alone either. After class the woman in front of me asked, "Did you see the bug? I was trying to shoo it away. I didn't want to kill it."

The yogi preacher may have fumigated hundreds of fleas, but today she saved a roly poly bug and lessened my guilt about missing church by delivering a great sermon.


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Number of Hot Yoga Classes: 15