Hello, chummettes

maybe even chase doesn’t know that i practice yoga at least twice a week. it’s one of the stress relievers in my life, although i’m usually running late to class and stress about trying to leave work in time to get there. tuesday night is the best, even if it’s in a windowless, decades-old room in a gold’s gym.

i like to listen to my teachers say the poses as we move through them, rolling over the syllables in my mind. this pose, utthitaparsvakonasana, is one of the most beautiful to hear aloud, even though it stands for something really boring: extended side angle. it leads into one of my current favorite poses to practice (and which i am slooowly mastering): svarga dvidasana, or bird of paradise. whenever we get to this cycle in the practice, i start to think “no this pose sounds prettiest!” “no this one!” and every time we reach utthitaparsvakonasana, it’s game over.

my perhaps all-time favorite pose is quite simple. it’s called viparita virabhadrasana, and it means reverse warrior. i have always felt it just fits my body the best. i feel very powerful and true and lovely, and about a month ago we had a sub for my sunday morning class and he called out, “viparita virabhadrasana,” but then paused and termed it “peaceful warrior” and i realized then why this pose makes the most sense for me; this is who i am, and how i hope others see me; a peaceful warrior. strong but quiet. a steady presence. figuring it out on my own. i don’t mean that in an emo way; just that it is.

in viparita virabhadrasana, you stare up at your empty palm, your invisible sword dropped. you are supposed to focus on this, and remember that there is a time to drop the sword in many of our battles, especially those in our mind. last night, i kept staring at my hand and thinking of how many battles i want to cease, how i wish the struggles of this time and season would pass, how i want to let these things go. it is the peaceful warrior that reminds me i can stop fighting and still be strong. and there is something about learning these lessons at 10 pm on a weeknight in a room full of strangers that makes them that much more poignant. 

There are two lines in this letter that caught me. 

First:

If you truly love a girl, you shouldn’t ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors. 

I really appreciate his choice of “humiliation” here (in addition to writing a whole letter about staying faithful). And “rejected.” Very intense words, and I appreciate this because I feel like sometimes cheating can be tossed around lightly. A common problem, versus a common and devastating one.

Second:

There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.

Okay three:

P.S. You’ll never get in trouble if you say “I love you” at least once a day.

many, many, many things happened, but one thing that could get lost in the hubbub of the crazy (because it wasn’t that much time, time-wise) was that i joined my coworkers for a flash/freeze mob inspired by frozen grand central station. 

if you know me, you know i hate any performance in front of a crowd larger than my mom.  but this job has pushed me to be much more extroverted, so yesterday (saturday) around 6:30, a relatively small group (30 or so) of us made our way to the giant in columbia heights to perform a flash mob (changed to a freeze mob because of the logistical complications of a dance) in the produce section. i had a cart and roamed the aisles with my friend katie and we picked up a few things we could easily put back later. we decided to freeze in front of the cheese section … because we both really like cheese. she froze reaching for some brie, and i froze comparing two things of mozzeralla. my coworkers froze in various mid-conversation, mid-produce picking, mid-placing in the cart/basket, mid-proposal, etc. positions. 

i totally didn’t think anyone would notice because it’s a big grocery store and there were easily 50-75 regular shoppers in the produce section AND i assumed because this was DC people would be annoyed we were in their way and not moving, but after about two minutes i heard, “wait, they’re all frozen in place!” “this is a flash mob!” “i was going to take my break but i totally gotta see this!” “look!” a man took a picture of me on his iphone. people reached around us for their cheese of choice. a few cops were brought in. somehow i managed not to laugh. by minute four (of the five-minute freeze) my heart was beating fast enough that i could see my dress moving. then the five minutes was up (we timed it on our phones with vibrating alarms) and katie and i replaced our cheese and other products - none of us acknowledged each other as we continued throughout the produce section and moved to exit - and several employees and shoppers broke into applause. a random shopper walked up to my friend phil, handed him his business card and said, “if you EVER do this again, let me know! i’m in!”   

reason #938 why my coworkers rock.

drinkyourjuice:

would be a really smart thing to write on the poster you put on the card table where you’re giving away free dumplings.

whatshouldwecallme:

I just wanna be like,