Smiley days ... :)

Coming home from my Saturday afternoon ashtanga class it was evening, getting dark, and when I arrived at the gate at the bottom of my drive there was a wallaby sitting halfway up the drive! It just sat there looking at me as I opened the gate, and only hopped off to the side after I drove in ... Made me smile - one of the things I love about living in a semi-rural area!

I'm smiling a lot at the moment! I'm feeling so much better than I was, and yes, my cough is definitely getting better. (Although people who are around me at the shala when I'm doing sun salutes/downdog may not necessarily agree!) Health (good health that is!) really has an affect on your sense of wellbeing ...

And also - I am going to be going part-time (4 days a week) from next year! I'm so excited! My boss said "Are you sure you want to do this?" when I asked him! Is the pope a catholic?!?!! (I didn't say that to him, but ... !) This is something that my mother was always wanting me to do, but I could never afford it. Now I can (or will) - thank you Mum! Ever since I moved jobs and campuses, all the travelling (1 hour each way) has meant my work day has been incredibly long, and I've had very little energy to do anything during the weekday evenings. Now things are going to change! I always knew that this time would be a period of change - and this is the start ...  (And another very big smile!)

I didn't mean it that way, but in retrospect the title of my last post (Life goes on) could sound a bit down, or negative ... So it's good to be able to write a really smiley post!!

Life goes on ...

Life goes on ... my yoga practice is coming back together, slowly but surely. Still only managing 3-4 practices a week at the moment but hopefully that will expand over the next few weeks/months. I'm not going to sweat it - I remember how surprised I was to discover that I had somehow ended up with a 5-6 day a week practice without me realising it! So that should come in its own time - when the planets align!  And as we're going through a spell of unseasonably hot spring weather (even for sunny Queensland, Australia!) I don't always feel like walking across campus in the midday sun to the space where I can do a lunchtime practice ⟨grin⟩

Still enjoying my Sunday morning yoga practices with Helen. Sometimes other friends join in, sometimes it's just us. Last Sunday Helen brought out a DVD that we used to use way back when we did Friday lunchtime yoga sessions at the University about 3-4 years ago. Really nice - set in a subtropical garden in Byron Bay - or so I've always thought! Anyway, it was lovely to see it again, and catch a few hints as I did my own ashtanga practice!

My health is inching its way back to normal. Still coughing but less, and I no longer feel like I'm operating at 80% or less!

Choir rehearsals for The Messiah started again this week. I was really reluctant to make the (rather large) effort required to get to rehearsal, but of course am really glad I did! To be honest I don't even know if I'll be able to sing in the concert - that all depends on how my cough is going then. There's nowhere to hide when you're part of a large choir sitting on the 'stage' in the Cathedral when you're not standing and singing your heart out! But even if I can't sing in the actual performance, I just love singing it and it's wonderful to be part of the choir going through all the choruses again ... Do hope I'll be able to sing though ... :)

yoga practice re-started

IT's been a long weekend here, which was wonderful. Time to laze around, time to be in the moment, time to do some yoga again. I started off by going to a vinyasa class at work on Friday lunchtime, and then on Saturday I went back to my normal class. I cannot begin to think how long it has been since I was there ... but it was so good to be back and practicing again, even though a reduced, shortened practice. Lots of adjustment/alignment in Parsvottanasana ... a lot to think about there!

Then on Monday I went to my friend Helen's in the morning and we did a yoga practice. And - wow! I was so stiff. I could hardly get my hands to the floor in the sun salutes! Really showed me I had just been playing at yoga practice in the past few weeks, if that's what happens after one shortened practice at the shala. It is, as the saying goes, 'all good'!!

Apart from that I didn't do very much at all ... went to the library, wrote a few emails, made a few phone calls. Made some bread. I've kind of given up on sourdough (making) for the moment, and tried a 'no-knead' recipe from one of Bill Granger's books (Bill's Basics). It turned out quite nice, though I think I should have left it in a bit longer.

September update

Well, I don't know that I have anything much to say that's interesting. But it has been over a month since I last posted so I really should ...

Had a really lovely 10 days or so when 3 friends from the UK and Portugal, and one from Byron Bay came to stay for a wonderful 5-day event with our meditation teacher, Maharaji. Mind you - it was lovely, but I was sick the whole time they were here (still am) and so had to get them to do all the cooking etc. I just managed to be one of the two drivers to and from the convention site each day, and then to drag myself across the countryside there to collapse in different locations to listen ... And then collapse into bed as soon as I'd eaten dinner!

So, why am I sick?!! I had thought I was getting better the week before they came, but it just all hit me again as I rushed too and fro from the airport collecting international visitors! I'm sure there must be some connection to my mother's death, and the really difficult few months I've had. I have seen both the 'coughing' doctor and my haematologist and it appears I just have to wait for the coughing to hopefully go away/die down. The antibiotics I have been taking for ages no longer work much (surprise surprise!), and the only other antibiotic I could take, I can't as it's implicated in the haemalytic anaemia I had earlier in the year!!

It has actually made me realise that I really need to take things into my own hands here. The partner of one of my English friends is a homeopath and we ended up skyping (or trying - ended using the 'normal' phone line!). She sent me some remedies which I started taking last week, and even though I find it hard to see how homeopathy can work, I do feel they have made a difference. And if it's a placebo effect, well why should I care?! I'm going to investigate further on the complementary side of medicine to see what help I can get, before I go back to those doctors near the end of October ...

And yoga? Well, apart from some Sun Salutes 2 weeks ago, nothing! I'm hoping I might be up to doing some lunchtime yoga during the week. But today it's really hot and didn't feel like dragging myself across campus! It's supposed to be the beginning of Spring for goodness sake, not full summer! Luckily the weather forecast says it will go down to the mid-twenties from tomorrow ... although still no rain! Had to buy some water in last week after all those visitors!!

Shoulderstand - I wish!

I saw a post this morning via Elephant Journal - 10 Reasons to do Shoulderstand every day ... And right now I am just thinking - I wish!! I really wish I could do shoulderstand. I wish I could do any yoga!

I had decided that I would do Sunday yoga with my friend Helen as my re-entry into yoga practice after many weeks of not being able to do any because of various back injuries (one following the other etc etc!!) My right shoulder had been feeling heaps better for days (in fact I had hardly felt it for days) and my right hip issue was completely forgotten. Of course I still have the awful awful cough which I knew would be exacerbated by downdog (or any kind of inversion) but I was completely ready to make a start on a limited practice. So ... I managed to get through 3 Sun Salute As (with many many stops for coughing!), and then did a restricted version of the standing poses (leaving out the parivritti variations). But by the time I got to the seated poses I was feeling niggles in my shoulder - and even my hip made an appearance! So I just did a few lying down poses like supta hasta pandangustasana. But my shoulder was complaining more loudly, to the extent that I had to do savasana lying on my left side ...

And now, 2 days later it is still an issue off and on, much like it had been ... sigh!! It's actually hard to think of yoga poses that don't involve your shoulders in some way. When I see my osteopath again tomorrow she will no doubt tell me off - last time I saw her she said I could only do 'restorative' yoga.

All this trying to get back to yoga was/is of course part of trying to get my life back to normal. To some extent it is working, though I have to admit to a certain amount of putting stuff to one side, not confronting things. But there's definitely a few things that I can't put off too much longer, like writing to people in the UK who may not have heard the news about Mum.  Heigh ho ... !

Actually, action is going to be forced on me as in two and a half weeks 3 friends from Europe are arriving to stay for 10 days (and there'll be a 4th Aussie friend staying too!) - our meditation teacher is doing a 5-day event at Amaroo which is going to be soo wonderful! And anyway - I'll really need to have made a start on all these letters etc. before then, otherwise it'll be 2 months late ...

Everything is different

It's difficult to know how to start this. I guess I'll just have to come straight out and say it. My mother died just under 3 weeks ago - on Wednesday 18th July. In theory it wasn't unexpected. Her doctor had told me (and her) that her time was very limited. But there's such a world of difference between 'knowing' that sort of thing in theory, even talking openly and freely about it both with the doctor and my mother. And being faced with the reality, the absence ...

I'd actually been down with her the week before, having received a phonecall from her summoning me down on the Sunday. And then as all seemed relatively well, and because I had doctor's appointments etc the following week, I flew back home on the following Sunday. I was actually with my doctor when I got the phonecall on Wednesday morning to let me know she had gone.

I went back down the following day, and began (with the help of my wonderful brother-in-law and nephew Peter) the task of organising the funeral (cremation) service, the memorial service, the order of service, etc. etc. etc. All in a complete daze - not really knowing what I was supposed to be doing. Thank god for the support of family and my Mum's many friends in the district. And of Sylvia, the wonderful wonderful neighbour and friend, without whom Mum's life would have been so much more difficult. It was her who helped me go through Mum's clothes, tidy up her room so that other relatives would feel OK about staying there for the memorial service, etc. etc.

My other (equally wonderful!) nephew, Jo and wife Emma arrived back from London for the memorial service, which was a truly lovely event. Over 200 people whose lives she had touched crammed into the local Anglican church, and in the church hall afterwards for 'refreshments'.

And now ... I'm back home in Brisbane (as of last week), and back at work as of this week. Still kind of bewildered - wondering if that really happened: surely she's still at home in Bowral, waiting for me to ring and have a laugh about things with her ... I guess this is 'normal', and it will take months to come into focus / reality for me ...

I am OK - but I don't have any parents any more and it feels really strange / on the edge ... (but, I hasten to add, not of anything I'm going to fall into any time soon!!!)

Yoga - respect your body?!

You know how people (yoga teachers, bloggers, writers) are always saying things like 'respect your body' - 'it's not how bendy you are' etc etc etc?!! Well, I have to say I don't think I've reached those exalted, detached heights at all!!

After a horrendous few weeks of illness, caring for other people who are sick, culminating in virtually no yoga for the past couple of weeks and then damaging my back helping support someone (without thinking about what I was doing!) - I find myself unable to go further than my knees in uttanasana (standing forward bend), and hardly able to get to the floor to do downdog, etc etc. And I HATE it!! Last Tuesday I started to do a first yoga practice in what seemed like living memory (! OK, exaggeration, but ... !) and found one of my wrists giving way in downdog and I collapsed on the floor!

Saw my osteopath on Thursday and she did say I should attempt to do some yoga - just not to do anything that hurt me! So today I went to a friend's to do yoga together. And - well the only good thing about it was the actual fact of having attempted to do some yoga again! There was so much I couldn't do at all, or could only do in an extremely limited fashion!

Just have to hope and pray that my 2nd visit to the osteopath tomorrow morning will get my back onto the road to recovery! Since I've been back from NSW and back at work (Thursday) I've been parking my car completely illegally in the carpark of the Uni vet school clinic that is right next door to the building where I'm working at the moment. Couldn't imagine being able to do the 15 minute walk up from my normal (legal) carpark, and decided if I got a fine I'd just pay it. Luckily I didn't so far - I'm now wondering if I'll have to continue doing this next week ... sigh!

Transit of Venus - pictures

Here's a couple of pictures taken from the ustream feed on the day ... :)



The pinky sun is using a "Calcium K" filter, which shows structures on the solar surface.
(Love this picture!!)



This close-up shot is a "white light" image.

The Transit of Venus - viewed!

So thrilled - I didn't think I was going to manage it (with work, hospital, doctor's appointment etc) but I did! I actually found myself looking through a workmate's telescope and watching the transit of Venus across the sun for 15-20 minutes! (off and on!)

I'd been at hospital all morning having the final Mabthera treatment. And then I was supposed to see the doctor but wires had got crossed and he'd gone off to do something elsewhere. I had the option of waiting for at least an hour, or else coming back in around 3 hours. So glad I decided to leave and come back. When I got to work someone told me that one of my colleagues (in IT) had brought in a telescope. He has a PhD in astronomy and I knew that over the past few days he'd been helping set up telescopes for people to see the Transit of Venus at the University where we both work. Not to mention various esoteric computer-related links!

So I went straight upstairs to his office, and the next thing I knew a small procession of us were following him out to an outside walkway where he set the telescope up and we could all peer through and see it - such a thrilling sight ... I think he'd been doing this all day! It was near the end - Venus was getting close to the edge of the sun, and was going to be over clear sky again around 3.30pm. So if I'd waited to see the doctor I would definitely have missed it ...

Sometimes timing just works!

Yoga and gardening

Finally, back to posting about yoga (and other "normal") life type things! It isn't like my life is really back to "normal", but things do seem to be sorting themselves out (overall).

Over the last few days I've been noticing I seem to be more flexible than before. Like my hamstrings etc. are lengthening. And this comes when, for various work-related reasons I haven't been able to practice as much. I mean - this past week I've managed one Mysore class (yesterday), one 20 minute practice of just 5 of each sun salute on Tuesday, and then I went to a vinyasa class at the uni gym on Friday. (and yeah, I know that this in no way counts as part of my Ashtanga practice but this is something I do occasionally!!)

I really wouldn't expect my flexibility or strength to hold together with so little practice - certainly hasn't in the past. But, not only has it held, I seem to be more flexible! Maybe (and of course this is what I'm hoping!) my body has decided to take a step forward! We shall see I guess ... Fingers crossed!

And today a friend came round for lunch and to help me make a fenced off part of the back verandah more escape-proof for Miss Sansa Squiggletail pussycat! So far so good, but until I can be sure she can't find a way to escape I'm not going to open up access to that except at weekends when I'm here.

And - a couple of days ago another friend gave me some broccoli seedlings to plant. So this afternoon I cleared out one of the overgrown veggie beds so I could plant them, and in the process discovered there were still some 'forgotten' summer veggies to pick ... :)




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Location:Skyline Dr,Kholo,Australia

Life events saga!

OK - a few people wanted to know more about the avalanche of stuff that descended on me this past week! It's not a secret or anything - friends/family/everyone at work knows - just thought maybe blog-readers mightn't be that interested ... But anyway - here goes! (No yoga this post!!)

So, to re-cap: 2-3 weeks ago it was discovered that I had this rare disease - autoimmune haemalytic anaemia being one of its names! - where my immune system decided that my red blood cells were the enemy and was killing them off faster than my bone marrow could create new ones. So I was in hospital for 6 days having treatment for that. I felt so much better after that (and still do!) - had a few days relaxing at home and then went back to work this past Monday.

Now the main part of my job at the university is as part of a 2-person team that supports a software platform used for student course content - Blackboard. We support the lecturers' use of this, fix problems they have. So, I walk into work and the other team member says to me - glad you're back - I'm being called into hospital for a few days! Well, that was fine ... he'd been doing everything while I was away, now it'd be down to me to do similar.

But then as I'm going home that afternoon I start getting phone calls etc. to say that my mother, who lives in another state, had been taken into hospital. She does have various health conditions (including emphysema) and although she'd been really well (relatively!) when she'd been up here at Easter, she'd been having health problems since she'd gone home again.

Over the next couple of days I'm having to grapple with what to do. Whether I should just abandon all work responsibilities (remembering that I was the main person 'on board' for Blackboard support), jump on a plane and go down to where she was in hospital.  Could we find someone else with the required knowledge to come in as a casual and help out? Or whether I should wait until the situation stabilised itself - in fact wait until she is able to leave hospital and spend a week helping her at home.

Then my doctor tells me that he doesn't believe the treatment I'd had in hospital was working well enough and I have to come in for half a day once a week to have this other stuff dripped into me. And - I did ask, but he told me I can only have this done at the hospital in Brisbane - not down where my mother is!  Which of course means that (except unless things go seriously downhill) any trip down to see/help my Mum will have to be timed around that.

All this time I'm talking to my Mum, her doctor, her literally zillions of friends, neighbour who helps her out a lot. Reports from her friends and the neighbour say she is looking much better than she had been, she is in the right place, etc etc. My Mum, however is tearing her hair out! She was taken into the public hospital into a 'high dependency ward' where it is extremely noisy and there were 5 men in the ward with her. She wants to move into the private hospital (which is right next door) where she could have a private room etc. but it is full!

Finally yesterday (Friday) a bed in the private hospital became available and Mum is there now. And - she sounded like a different person! Such a relief. Hopefully she can now rest and get better, and when they are ready to let her go home we will be able to time the release so I can go down straight after one of my weekly hospital visits, and come back home just before the next one!

My workmate is back at work - they won't know for a few days whether the medication he has been given will do the trick, or whether he will have to have other in-hospital treatment. But that's a bridge to cross if/when it comes up!

It's funny - I've actually felt I was handling this all amazingly calmly - at least during the day time! Feeling a bit detached, philosophical - don't know how to explain it. But at nights - I never do this, but when I was in hospital I'd been given some sleeping pills (as I was on a steroid - prednisone) and I have had to use them quite a few nights this week. I just found myself lying awake trying to work out what the best thing to do was - planning this and planning that! Last night was the first night I didn't!!

At the hospital again

Although I've been feeling so much better since I got of hospital last week, my doctor wasn't happy enough with my blood test results yesterday, and decided he wanted me to have mabthera (aka rituxin) infusions once a week for 4 weeks. So today I went to work for the morning and then came to the hospital for the afternoon! (Where I am now.)

All that aside - as I said, I've been feeling great since I got out of hospital last week. Went back to work on Monday and things have been going swimmingly. Well, my health-wise, and from my perspective anyway! So many other work/family issues are swirling around it's quite unbelievable - you wouldn't credit it! Too complicated to go into here, and probably not that interesting to others anyway, but ... !#?%!##!

I didn't make it to my normal Saturday yoga class. On Friday evening my fridge decided it had given enough and gave up the ghost! So I had to spend Saturday racing round buying a new fridge and getting it delivered. The amount of furniture moving involved to get the new fridge in, not to mention all the cleaning under where the old one had been, under the dishwasher that had to be moved, etc etc. I was completely exhausted by the end of all that and decided to be sensible and stay home!

Did go to see 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' on Sunday ... Such a wonderful film, I really loved it and highly recommend it! I think I'm going to buy the DVD. Hilarious ... :)




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Back to class but ...

I went to the Friday morning Mysore class this morning - a rare pleasure as it's on between 9.15am and 11.15am, and I'm usually at work. But really - how could I on the one hand know perfectly well when it starts and aim to be there by 9am. And then on the other other hand decide that 9am was the best time to leave home (knowing it takes at least 45 minutes to drive there)?!?!! Can I blame it on the drug I'm still taking? (Prednisone)? I actually sat in the car outside for about 15 minutes waiting for it to get to the "o'clock" before going into the class!!

Oh well!! I did a shortened practice - which I was always intending to do as I have also hurt one of my wrists doing some arm-strengthening exercises - triceps dips. (The amount of foolishness I'm having to own up to here is somewhat embarrassing!!!)

Has been really nice just relaxing at home, doing a bit of cooking etc etc. I met a friend in town for coffee yesterday and we did a little trawl round a couple of galleries which was nice. And on Sunday I'm going out for sushi and the movies with my friend Ross - we're going to see 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'. That was such a wonderful book, and the trailer for the film looks good. In fact I was reading that book when I was in hospital in 2007, and my haematologist liked the look of it so much he ended up reading it and several others by the same author (Paul Torday)!

And back to work on Monday ... :)

Yoga in ugg boots!

Oh I am so pissed off! How can the content of two posts have disappeared -except for the title and tags!! Going between BlogPress and editing in Safari ... Sigh!! I am going to try and construct/update them now ... And will not make that mistake again!

OK so ... Yesterday afternoon I managed to do a modified practice wearing ugg boots for the standing poses! What can you do?! Faced with no yoga mat and trying to keep my feet from slipping out from under me on the hospital linoleum floor, it was a great idea! Still only did a modified practice but I was so pleased I was able to do it. I remember when I was here in 2007 having chemo I brought my mat in but it was just too much even to attempt it! This time, no yoga mat but it was possible. :)

So what I've got, why I'm here in hospital is something called "autoimmune haemolysis'. What that means is my immune system had decided that my red blood cells were the enemy and was killing them off!! Which could not be allowed to continue for obvious reasons ... :) For a while the treatment was only partially working - blood test results showed some 'markers' were going in the right direction, but not my haemoglobin. However at last today that is on the upward path too, but not quickly enough for me to get out/home today, sadly. But I and the doctor are hopeful it'll be OK tomorrow.

Unexpected!

OK, this is the reconstruction (attempted reconstruction!) of the second post that's disappeared because I was creating in BlogPress and then editing via Safari ... I hadn't worked out how to add tags in BlogPress - forgotten probably, and so tha's what I was doing via Safari. Great idea! Got the tags in but the actual blog post disappeared!! Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted! The last place I was expecting to find myself spending the long weekend was hospital! But Wednesday was my three-monthly visit with my specialist and I always have blood tests before that. And there was apparently something funny happening with my red blood cells - they were vanishing and my bone marrow wasn't able to keep up with the demand! Looked like my immune system was having some sort of spas attack and going after them. I also had to have the normal 4-weekly IV-IG infusion so more blood tests were ordered. Doctor wanted me to stay in over night as results hadn't come back but I had the pussycat to look after (and really didn't want to!) so I went home to await a phonecall the next day. And the next day I was told I'd have to come into hospital until Monday at least for some treatment to stop my sily immune system! Sigh ... ! Took young Sansa off for heer first visit to the pet motel (not happy!), went to the library on the way and then armed with books, DVDs, iPad etc. here I am! I did try doing some sun salutes but as I hadn't brought my yoga mat (only had my big one at home and too much to carry!) it was by hard! Veery skippy underfoot, didn't feel safe. But seated might be easier tomorrow? will see.

Pussycat and yoga updates

More pictures of the pussycat - here she is sleeping on my Gregor Maehle book! My Mum was up staying over Easter, and she has 'added to' the pussycat's name Sansa. This pussycat has a really funny tail - it curls right up and lies over her back - in fact it reminds me of a dog - like a Basenji or one of those Japanese dogs. And she constantly waves it from side to side! So Mum said - oh she should be called Squiggletail - and I'm now calling her Sansa Squiggletail!! It's kind of hard to get her to stay still enough for me to get a good photo of this wiggly tail - this below is the best I could do!



It's been a funny few weeks, yoga-wise. There were a couple of weeks when I only managed one practice a week - sick one week, and completely maxed out at work the next. This coincided with a sudden unexpected temporary closure of the yoga shala I go to. It's finally re-opening next Monday (after a month being closed).

Anyway, after the two weeks of one practice a week (my Sunday morning yoga saved my life!) I managed to re-start my lunchtime practices at work - but really noticed how my stamina had fallen away! And then Easter arrived along with my mother and all the required entertaining ... sigh. I think I managed to practice 2 times over Easter.

Luckily back to 'normal' practice again now! Though I still think that when I get back to class next week my core stamina will still be a bit down. Which is a pity as I had planned to re-start doing most of the poses that have been on hold since I did my knee meniscus injury last June/July (was it really that long ago?!) Now I'll just have to see how I go ... :)

It's been so long!!

Don't know why - combination of reasons I guess! Nothing much to say - v busy at work - then fighting off some kind of virus ... But finally I'm back here! And one of the things that has happened in the past month or so is I've finally got a new pussycat - from the RSCPA shelter.


Very pretty - she has some oriental in her as you can tell by her big ears and sweet-shaped face ... I've named her Sansa - after one of the two young Stark sisters in the wonderful SF epic by George RR Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire. I've been listening to these books on audible.co.uk audio for months now! I'm up to - I think it's the 5th book - Part 2 of a Storm of Swords. So addictive ... :)

Anyway, Sansa is not really my favourite character - that would be Arya, her younger tomboy sister. But really - I don't want a tomboy cat at all! Sansa is the sweet pretty one who believes in chivalry and knights and fairytales! So I'm channelling that sort of behaviour towards my new little friend - without a huge amount of success I have to admit so far! I had really wanted to get a cat this time, not a kitten.  But after I'd kind of fallen in love with this young cat, it turned out she was only 6 months old and has quite a lot of kitten still in her! As evidenced by her insistence on wanting to play at biting my toes at 4am, races from one end of the house to the other at breakneck (mine as well as hers!) speed, etc etc!! The RSPCA people said they didn't think she'd grow much bigger as she's already had kittens (?!!) - but that's good coz I like small cats. And hopefully the kitten stage will pass soon (she says wistfully!)

Anyway - what else?! A friend who I often practice yoga with on Sunday mornings invited me to a DVD screening of 'Yogawomen' at a yoga shala in Ipswich where I live last Saturday evening. We had quite a fun evening, but really it was too American for me. Lots of how wonderful women were (I know that already!!) and not enough yoga practice!

I've been sick for the last week or so - just feeling exhausted. Too tired to go to my Saturday afternoon class so that is really something! I managed to drag myself into work every day, and I did manage to do 30 minutes of yoga most lunchtimes. And now today (Friday) - the end of the week when I'd expect to be tired - I woke up feeling refreshed and full of energy!! Halleluyah!!!

Here's another picture of young Sansa ...

The roundup

Well, everyone else is doing it ... I've looked back through my 2011 blog posts, and I actually don't really know how to sum it all up. Some bad things happened. I got a torn meniscus in my knee. I did get to Bali, but was pretty sick the whole time! And - don't think I ever posted about this, but in the middle of the year my darling pussycat got run over - I was searching for her and had to pick her body up from the road. Too painful to blog about at the time, and although I'm now reconciled, I think that some of the pain from that may have spilled over into the way I was so freaked out/obsessed with my knee meniscus issue - probably explains a lot. (Never realised it at the time, but the knee thing happened only a week or two later.)

Something that I did learn from Dena this time was to 'enjoy what I've got/where I am in the practice'. I've just re-read a post from Bali about her concept of 'conscious samisthithi' before moving into each pose. To stretch the spine, then turn on uddhiyana and mula bandhas, and then move into the pose. One of the teachers at my shala reminded me to do that in my last shala practice before Christmas.

And don't let me forget that my meditation teacher Maharaji came to Australia, and I went to the 2-day event at Amaroo, and also saw him speak in an introductory event in Brisbane a couple of weeks later (having just flown back from spending 10 days helping my Mum when she got out of hospital). That was all really wonderful.

I'm hoping for a happy and healthy 2012! I will get another pussycat soon. I've reluctantly decided that while I still live in this house (which, although rural, has a road close by that cars/lorries drive fast along) I will have to prevent access to the wider outdoors. I've always kept my cats inside at night to protect the wildlife, but generally speaking I don't agree with keeping cats inside. But ... I just can't go through that again (finding her dead on the road), and have actually had part of the back deck fenced off, so I can give a pussycat limited outdoors access. I'm going to get an adult cat from the RSPCA shelter this time (although I'll definitely get an Abyssinian kitten again in the future!)

Anyway - let's just see what lessons 2012 brings to us all ... :)