Today I had my 3rd all day yoga teacher training, and I promised the dog I would not shirk my duties this weekend. I promised to take her on a hike. So after the whole day doing yoga and teaching other teachers how to do yoga, then mowing my lawn and picking up dog poop, I was already tired. But a promise is a promise. After a brief visit with my friends and their family, I headed up to the rims with Korra.

My hips were locking up. In my old mindset, I would have ignored it and kept walking with a limp, or bagged the whole thing and turned around.

I realized that after spending a whole day leading teachers through yoga asanas and breathing meditations and being open about my personal journey about yoga philosophy that I’d lost a little self consciousness.

So Korra and I found a rock that was flat.

There are many flat rocks up in the rimrocks. I did pigeon pose and stretched out my hips and low back. I sat right there and did some yoga on the rocks. There were other hikers and I decided not to care. I didn’t let Korra go off leash today because it was too busy and I was being brave and not wearing a mask. I’m still not too sure about that CDC announcement, but I am also very very very ready to stop wearing masks, just like all of us are.

I sat in Sukhasana (easy seat) and breathed. I held my hands over my heart and took in the beautiful scenery.

I looked down and saw a sweet little pebble. When I was with Jess I would collect a pebble for him every time I hiked. He had quite a collection.

Today I collected the pebble for myself, and said a blessing to him when I put it in my pocket. I cried a little at the bittersweetness of it all, and let that be a sacrament.

I got up and started hiking again.

My hips felt amazing.

Namaste.