Oh, the Places You Won't Go!

Yoga and Writing – Similar Stretches

This morning I took a yoga class – hatha yoga, with my favorite teacher Mike.   You can never take for granted that you can do in any given moment what you did in the last class.  For example, some mornings, it feels uncomfortable for me to sit cross-legged.  Most mornings I’m fine.  The same is true when doing the plow.  Some days I can lie on my back and get my feet to go way over, beyond my head and land on the floor behind me.  Other days, I’m nowhere near doing the plow. My feet hover straight up towards the ceiling, and I can’t launch my feet back as I could the other day.  And balance is another one of those things you can do some days but not others.  On some days I really am balanced and can do a major pose with my hands in prayer or above my head.  The next time, I’m wobbling.  And you can be balanced on your left side and not your right.

I’ve long drawn parallels between yoga and writing; I know this is not a completely original concept, but it helps to understand how writing ability can be new and challenging each new day.  I used to tell this analogy to my middle school students. Some days the writing just comes.  The Muse is by your side, and it’s all flowing so easily and beautifully.  And the other days, the dreaded days, you search for a beginning, for a topic, for inspiration, for the right words to land on the page.

Today was okay in both spheres – no profound prose here, and no perfect plow there. There’s always tomorrow.