Day 146 December 28, 2010

Day 146  Cleo the kitten at Jen and Nick's house

I'm in the city of Halifax tonight, taking care of my daughter and her fiance's kitties while they are away visiting family in Ontario.  Cleo has only been a part of their family for a week so she needs a bit of watching.  Cleopatra and Moses, such biblical names, but cats do possess a timeless quality, and an air of majesty and poise.

Cleo was quite excited by the foam blocks I set out for my shoulder stand practice.  She went into attack mode briefly, wrestling with them.  Once I'd settled on the floor for savasana she made friends with me.  I was on her turf.

I noticed today that winter has definitely arrived in Nova Scotia.  Driving into the city was slow going, which is a good thing.  I only spotted two cars off the road.  One was in the median ditch between the twinned highway and the other was mysteriously parked in the snow next to a grove of tall spruce trees, well past the ditch between the highway's edge and the start of the forest.  If there had been a road to that location it wouldn't have seemed odd at all.  There was no road.  The car had at some point flown over the ditch and landed safely next to the tall trunks of the spruce trees that had been limbed by the highway crew this fall.

There are times in life when we need to slow down and be more alert than usual.  Driving during a winter storm is one of those times.  Even in a yoga practice slowing down and becoming alert to the nuances of the asanas' effects on the body is a good thing.  As well, slowing down to view your recent artistic efforts is a good thing.  When you slow down you become alert to nuances of colour and details of shape and form.

Just for today, see if you can take the time to slow down at some point, even if only for a short while.  Do things appear different to you when you slow down?  What does your self awareness tell you when you slow down?  Is this unknown territory to you?