Mary Oliver – Nov 22, Iyengar All Levels

For a piece of lotus pose. We all start somewhere. And then we start again, and again, and again, and…Given the frequency Oliver is read in Yoga classes, fun to read she actually took some herself.

FIRST YOGA LESSON

“Be a lotus in the pond," she said, "opening

slowly, no single energy tugging

against another but peacefully,

all together.”

I couldn't even touch my toes.

"Feel your quadriceps stretching?" she asked.

Well, something was certainly stretching.

Standing impressively upright, she

raised one leg and placed it against

the other, then lifted her arms and

shook her hands like leaves. "Be a tree," she said.

I lay on the floor, exhausted.

But to be a lotus in the pond

opening slowly, and very slowly rising—

that I could do.