let it shine

I am sore. Seriously sore. Anyone else? I am also addicted to my practice again. Anyone feeling the same?
As some of you know I was a bit ill for a while and was unable to join in at the joint for some good ol fashion rockin yoga for, well, about a year and half! I became quite accustomed to my restorative practice, it went something like this: take bath, perferably with alex's lavendar salts but epsom salts and bubble bath were in the rotation too; after bath lay with my legs up the wall and wait for my pounding heart to return to normal. If a nap wasn't the next posture then it was pigeon on both sides and a restorative forward bend. Ah....savasana.
I tried a few classes here and there when I thought my body was feeling good. I remember taking one of Tracy's classes on a Saturday and being on the couch for three days straight afterwards! I did some home practices, steering clear of backbends because they felt awful and set my nervous system on fire. I went back to the above sequence more often than not. I finally got some stamina and started to practice a few times a week, on my own, very carefully. How good it felt to move! The stretches were more nerves than muscles for a while but I was breathing and flowing and sitting in child's pose and aching for savasana. I started taking Donna's basics class. SO DIFFICULT!!!! Gosh, we make these beginners hold poses forever! My legs still aren't capable of the long holds!
This summer I began taking an open class a week. My home practice began to move away from the wall and off the floor. My muscles started to strech, my nervous system at bay. Enter The Promise Land (this is sort of like when Metallica's Enter Mr. Sandman plays during the Yankees games, meaning Mariano Rivera, the Closer, is coming in to finish off the opponent): A 32 day challenge to close a very long chapter of my life.
I still take Donna's basics class on Tuesdays, I am addicted. It is both good for my body and my teaching. I take as many open classes as possible when I a not working. I practice everyday in some shape or form. I even ventured out in New Haven and took a class, GASP, at another studio! It was nice to practice so close to home, something a lot of you feel about Saraswati's. I still take baths and put my legs up the wall (a great practice, ill or not). I still sit in pigeon often and love a restorative practice.
I am enlivened by the promise. The studio's promise to encourage all of it's students to move as he or she is meant to that day on his or her mat. The promise of my fellow practitioners to breathe me through a tough practice. The promise of The Joint's teachers to hold my space sacred for me. So I show up as often as possible. I show up at the joint, on my mat and off it, being as present as I can. I feel gratitude for every stretch that opens me and every pose that challenges me. I am thankful every time I step on my mat for the will to place myself in a posture, breathe there and watch myself unfold. I appreciate every moment I need to take rest and for the times when I feel light and strong and take flight. It's amazing how differently I hold my practice in my life now, how perspectives have shifted, wants and needs adapting. I am not sure I really understood those difference when I was younger, more fit, healthier. This month long Promise Land couldn't have come at a better time in my life. I can honestly say I am happy to have been ill. Like sunshine after rain I am ready to shine.