Day 144 ~ A Place to Be

May 24, 2014     

My instead:  I went to a yoga session under the St. Louis Arch.

At one of my business meetings a couple of weeks ago, one of the women there informed me about Yoga at the Gateway Arch. I knew instantly that I would be doing this on my next available Saturday morning. So “instead” of pancakes with syrup and butter, I did yoga at the Arch!

I arrived under the Arch a tad bit late, but that was okay. No one noticed because they were all in their “zen” place. I just put my stuff down, laid out my mat, took my shoes off and began my very first yoga lesson. I had no difficulty doing any of the things the instructor was suggesting. Sometimes I had a hard time seeing her, so I just copied off everyone around me. But being under the St. Louis Arch was amazing and actually kind of surreal. I loved being a part of something like that. I felt this was my place to “be”. To me there was this sense of purity surrounding everyone there. Was it because our purpose being there was mutual? I felt like it was It was a communion of sorts.

At the end of the session, I asked the young woman next to me if she would take a photo of me in a yoga pose on the mat. She, of course, obliged me and afterwards we struck up a conversation. We exchanged names and hers was Emily. As usual, I was spewing from the mouth with all the stuff that I’m doing this year and she shared that she would be starting a new job and moving to St. Louis in September. She was very open to me and did not seem standoffish at all. We walked up to the right leg of the Arch and asked a couple to take a photo of us in front of the Arch. And, of course, we took one or two of them in return. They were from Boston and very cordial. Was it just me or did everyone seem just a little friendlier than usual?

My Saturday morning was like no other. Yoga was fun and interesting and Emily was a delight! I will go again soon as time permits. The yoga sessions last through June, so I’d better keep my Saturday mornings open!

Why in the world was I not grabbing onto new and different things to do before 2014? Not to say that I haven’t done anything new in the past, but this new regimen of mine has opened up what feels to me like the universe...the universe out there and the universe inside me.