I’m not nearly this graceful (or fit) in my yoga, but here a depiction of Side Plank Pose, courtesy of the internet.
I got my second installment of the rabies vaccination today. Apparently the Navy thinks that I’ll be running with the wild street dogs of Dakar, and thus require that appropriate precautions be taken in order to protect this hyper-immunized Westerner. Ah the Navy. Only the nation’s livestock rival us in terms of antibiotics and compounds that are injected into our bodies. Did I mention that in French, “rabies” is translated as “la rage”? An excellent word, easily remembered, and one that will be purposely and cheerfully misused by me as often as I can.
So after my date with the seventeen-year-old corpsman, I was left with beautiful bruise art on my upper arm and a sore knot in the muscle. I decided that it would be best to go to yoga to try and disseminate some of that fine rabies juice around my body. I’m lazy and a bit cheap, so I’ve been going to free classes the entire time that I’ve been in DC. The drawbacks to attending free events are many: the quality of instruction isn’t great, the rooms are overcrowded, and you willfully surround yourself with some weird, weird people. Still, some stretching is better than no stretching, so off I go week after week.
I spent the bulk of the 70 minute class doing exactly what you are not supposed to be doing: making mental ‘To Do’ Lists and cluttering my mind with useless chatter. In this case I was thinking about all of the things that I need to do before I leave the area, but don’t really want to get on with doing. I’m slightly agitated at the fact that I need to pick up and move again so shortly after arriving, so I’ve been tackling problems in small chunks and hopefully avoiding any last-minute emergencies.
Three-quarters of the way through my class, I’m thinking about how I am going to file taxes after the New Year (this year will be more complicated and I’m not looking forward to getting them done). I’m pondering this while in side plank pose, and simultaneously staring out the window and across the street. I see the lights of The Container Store sign all lit up and instantly get a bit of la rage. A split second after I am processing this irony, I can see that there is something in the foreground of my vision, before the neon sign: it is red writing on the window of the store that I am currently in, written for passers-by to read and ponder. I shift my focus (yes, we were in this pose for a long time) and see the following written across the entire window:
“What are you thankful for?”
I don’t know why life works the way it does, or if there really is any basic meaning to everything that happens to us. That said, my frustration was instantly quelled by this store’s window advertising (or maybe it was the vaccine!) and I was able to adjust my frame of mind. I feel incredibly thankful to be moving to Africa on a scholarship, and am even more thankful to have a solid network of family and friends who support me. Even though the immediate future is going to be stressful as I deal with the remnants of my previous life and the inconveniences of a change in duty station, it doesn’t matter. I am grateful for everything that has occurred in my life and has brought me to my current crappy yoga class.
After we finish up, I run over to Whole Paycheck to buy a couple of supplies before heading back home. For some reason bananas are at the top of my Favorite Foods list right now, so I don’t like being without them at breakfast. Bananas and wine went into my tote bag, and I headed to my car.
Bananas and wine. I’m also really thankful for these things- just not at the same time.