Skate skiing on Mendenhall Lake on my 60th birthday |
“Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory” - Sri
K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore, India
This week I will be 60 years old. I’ve been thinking about
this birthday for a while, as is the trend with those big decade landmarks.
My blogs are often easy to write. I love to share
my stories about my adventures outdoors and the words usually flow out on to
the page. This one has been very difficult to write. I’ve started and stopped
and started over again about half a dozen times over the past couple of weeks
When I showed up for my Tuesday night yoga class this week,
I felt slightly anxious. It was the night before my birthday and I wasn’t too
excited about turning 60 years old. I couldn’t expect to get too much sympathy
at home, since Scott turned 60 last year and seemed to be handling it just fine.
I didn’t dare say anything to my 89 year old mother. I complained to her once when
I turned 50, and she just sighed longingly and said, “Oh, I would love to be 50
again!”
Scott knows that age is just a number, and turning 60 is no big deal, as long as you keep skiing |
I rolled out my mat and started to prepare for 90 minutes of
yoga practice. This particular class is Mysore style where every student goes
through the ashtanga primary series at their own pace. We individually focus on
our breath while working through a sequence of postures connected by vinyasa
movement (think jumping back into a push-up, arching your back for a breath,
another push-up, then lifting your hips and jumping into the next pose – repeat
about 100 times).
As I got deeper into the practice, I forgot the anxious
feeling I had at the beginning. I reminded myself to focus on the postures I was
still trying to learn, and to find ways to deepen the postures where I felt
more confident. The teacher moved from student to student, quietly helping each
person at different levels of the series. My muscles started to burn while at the same
time my mind felt focused and relaxed. The 90 minutes flowed by, slowly at
first, and then more quickly until the teacher reminded us it was time to begin
our closing sequences. It seemed like a moment later and we were in the final
pose, lying peacefully on our mats and enjoying the quiet rest that comes after
a vigorous practice.
Somewhere during those 90 minutes, my anxiety completely
disappeared. I was so focused on what I was doing there was no room for other
thought, and especially no room for negative thought. This is how I feel when I
go for a long hike, a good hard bike ride, cross country ski along a groomed
trail, or climb to the top of the ridge at the ski area and plunge down through
fresh, deep snow. This is what I do, and just because I’m 60 it doesn’t mean
I’m going to stop doing it.
Practice, practice, practice - then there's no time to worry about things that don't matter anyway |
On my birthday, I went out to Mendenhall Lake and skate
skied for over an hour. The air was cold, but the wind was calm, and the tracks
were perfectly groomed (thank you, Juneau Nordic Ski Club volunteer groomers).
I chatted with a friend as we skied together and focused on my breath, balance,
skiing, and poling while we breezed along. I looked up at the glacier and marveled
at the view. I met old and new friends coming and going on the trail. When I
was finished, I was tired, satisfied, and happy. I started thinking about where
I would ski tomorrow – maybe classic skiing on the Eaglecrest lower loop?
Sixty years hasn’t been so bad, now that I think of it. As
long as I stop worrying about it and keep practicing.
“Practice and all is
coming.”
Still crazy after all these years - climbing to the top of the ski area ridge for some turns before the chairlift opens |