A Perfect Start To A Perfect Day
At six o'clock yesterday evening Anadi and I set off for our second training session of the day. A strip of golden sand that led from our 'Escape Home' had appeared for us to run along...
I wore my bikini and Anadi his swimming shorts, and we set off jogging along the sand; the sun was starting to sink in the sky...
'This is a good time to run' I said... the heat was out of the day, the sand firm and the beach nearly empty. A family of four looking as if they were returning somewhere, waded in single file through a deeper bit of the sea where the beach had disappeared; a group of boys kicked a ball, a couple were taking a stroll as the sun set in streaky pink and gold...
And so we ran along in our swimwear, sploshing in the sea every so often when most of the strip of sand disappeared, clambering up onto the rocks and along a path above the beach when there was no sand at all; jumping down onto some sandbags, and back onto our sandy training track again...
Eventually we reached a patch that invited us to do our 'routines'.
Anadi is on a mission to get strong enough to do handstands where he can hold the position and lower his legs, that they are out at an angle...
I am on a mission to get very strong and very agile, and to be able to actually do a handstand again!
And so we did our 'routines' on the sand, and it got darker and darker until we were two silhouettes at the waters edge of an island in Thailand.
The sun dropped behind the sea, I was tired from my leaping and bounding and tried a handstand - I nearly did it - being tired made my body relaxed and my mind got out if the way and there was no 'can I...? Can't I...?' In that relaxed window I so nearly made it up by myself... Anadi caught my legs and then I was there...!
There was a time in my life, many years ago, when I spent a large proportion of my time upside down... It is an arena that represents freedom to me, to be able to move my body, bend it, stretch it, leap and bound... and turn myself upside down...!
We were hot and sweaty after our exertions and so we dived into the sea to cool down... It was quite warm after a day of sun on it, but refreshing too...
'We could swim back to home' Anadi said...
We followed the shoreline swimming in the dark, the twinkling lights of Koh Phangan, where we were living last week, to our left, and the restaurant lights here to our right lighting our way...
'I feel a bit unsure of all the fish in the sea I can't see, and the dark water', I said to Anadi after we had swum quite a long way, 'I think I'm ready to be back on the land...'
We waded in and walked back along the beach to a shower and dinner...
It was a perfect day...
Today I had a massage again with my beautiful massage lady, she has such a kind face. She looks gentle and peaceful; and she is starting to go 'stronger' in her treatment with me!
She works on my back for a long time, she is really working to open it up; she kneels on me and pulls me up, and twists me sideways, and stretches me back over her knee. In just three treatments I can feel the changes, and it is responding to her touch....
I am very keen to learn again how to bend my back into back bends, to see what arises as I do, and clear any emotional blockages that emerge with the space and time that I am giving myself for my own physical practices.
I see that the Thai massages I have been having here are opening the way for my own more regular yoga practice again. I know back bending can bring up strong emotions and that it is important to stay with the movements and bring the energy up the spine, so that it can cleanse the nervous system.
Being helped in this by assisted stretching and deep pressure point massage is giving my body the reminders it needs and encouraging my spine to release any tension and fear I am holding there.
When we finished today, having worked a lot on my middle and lower back, she said tomorrow we will work on top back, neck and shoulders....
She also picked up my middle toes and examined them closely! They are hammer toes and very bent... When I was about 8 years old my mother took me to the doctor to check they were not to be worried about.
The doctor asked me to pick up pencils with my toes, and when I could do that just fine, he said that there was nothing to worry about. 'They might give her trouble in her twenties, she could have them straightened then if she wants to, but for now, let's leave them be...'
They did give me trouble in my twenties, agony 'Morton's neuroma', but I overcame it first by stopping to 'click' my foot every so often in a run! But then by discovering that light, essentially barefoot shoes work best for me.
I had worn light shoes as a youngster and when I tried any shoes that did not bend in the forefoot, I felt the pain in the base of the forefoot, so light shoes it is...
I have a gang of 'UK size six and a half' friends who have benefitted from the 'running shoe mistakes' I made whilst in the process of discovering this to be the case...!
Any shoes that have not worked I have known in a run or two, and so the only answer was to give them away...!
T
his morning Anadi and I swum before breakfast. We clambered down the steep steps and immersed ourself in the deep turquoise blue; we swam way out an along to a beach where we did our exercises before sliding back itto the sea, rippling only slightly the still tranquil 'lady of the lake' pool of water...
It is like our own vast private swimming pool at the bottom of the garden; a garden which grows Coconut Palms and trees whose names I do not know, with red and yellow flowers, bright and fresh, butterflies flying about them.
A perfect start to another perfect day....
