sophie does the yoga journal cover

Grimmly just touched his toes to his head.  Big day for an ashtangi!  As I commented on his post, I remember being able to do that, I was maybe fourteen, no chance now!  But the crazy thing is, I remember being shocked to realize I could only barely do it, when previously it had been easy as pie.

Easy as Sophie makes it look:

This one is for you, Grimmly!  Raja kapotasana for the win!  Look at her put her head right in the soles of her feet!  I remember that sensation as a kid.  Maybe she and I have similar spines? Is it possible to get that back, now, at 40 years old? For Grimmly, the answer is yes.

When I read his post, I asked Sophie if I could take her picture “…doing that back bend thing you do?” and she said sure, and ran over.  “This one?” she said, flipping into one crazy pose after another, “or this one?”  She is doing all of these, of course, totally cold.

She stayed in this hangback for several moments while I waited for my camera to focus, all the while talking to me.  Then she slow-motion placed her hands on the ground, like reaching up to touch the sky.

“Don’t do anything that hurts!” I kept saying, “not even a little bit!”  To which she only rolled her eyes.  “It feels good, Mom.”  And I do remember that, I do, how it felt easy and natural to bend backward like this.  Can the remembering of it make it more possible in the now, I wonder, like those athletes who practice their sport in their minds?

Of course, progress in asana is not the point.

But it is exciting!  To be able to do what you would have sworn was impossible!  After only two years on the mat, I’ve had some of those.  Nothing so flashy as a head-to-the-toes, but still.

I tell Sophie, “do it every day, or you’ll lose it,” because I wish someone had said that to me when I had her spine.

And so sometimes, for fun, Sophie does an entire Primary with me.  She does many of the hardest poses like they are nothing, but then, interestingly, struggles with some that seem easy to me, like shoulderstand, or plow.  She can’t seem to get her shoulders underneath her for those one and keeps falling over.  Every body is different.

And hey, aren’t these some cute clothes we dyed?  Sophie’s design on those pants.  She’s amazing.