Making some stuff

I need to make some stuff up to see how it will play in this here template.

Copying some copy from Wayward P: Spring has done sprung.  There are cherry blossoms galore, daffodils strewn about the place and magnolias on the brink of bursting.  Saturday we did an early am flat & fast (& cold) ride out to Sauvie Island, around and back.  It was the first snackable ride (ride long enough to warrant some snacks along the way) so it feels like training has started.

Next weekend promises the first mental challenge of our Reach the Beach training - a couple of hours of wet, likely cold, riding.  But today we enjoy the sunshine!

And some photo action.  This is my gorgeous fur-nephew Lewis.  He is all sorts of mastiff and at 4 months is weighing in at 30 pounds.  Eventually the feller will be in the neighborhood of 150.

And now playing with other content from Wayward P: Two years ago YogaGlo brought us back together and last summer I started thinking about the good ol' days of headstand.  It took a good bit of practice but me and headstand are solidly reunited and better than ever even.  Other inversions... not so much.  Forearm stand was always so easy (easier than headstand) and now it simply escapes me.  Handstand, which I never really nailed even against a wall, is a ludicrous effort to defy gravity.  The more I practice, the worse they both seem to get.

So last weekend we were in Bend with a friend.  The boys spent Friday and Saturday up on the mountain and I spent the days raxing.  I did some reading, caught up on calls with friends and family, walked the doggie, looked at the pretty mountains, and with the trusty wall at my back queued up a few YogaGlo handstand tutorials.

The first one was helpful but I was still flailing and nowhere close to even a hint of handstand.  The second one was technically less helpful but in the intro talked a bit about what handstand is about.  The instructor reminded me that handstands are what kids do when they are playing around and at the heart of handstand is joy.  When I first learned handstand my teacher talked about very strong arms but softening your heart.  More recently one of my favorite YogaGlo classes talks about handstand in terms of unconditional self-love.  Solidity and strength in the arms (unconditional) and softening your heart down (self-love.)

I had been so focused and working so hard to think myself into handstand.  I wasn't upset or unhappy about any of it, but I was being pretty darn serious.  The more I flailed the harder I focused and then the deeper I fell away from the poses.  I completely forgot about being silly and joyful.  I forgot that the reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly and it is much easier to fly into handstand lightly!