Hey There Yoga Friends,

Here I sit with a great cup of coffee, all packed to come back to Michigan. My cab to Mumbai arrives in about an hour, I fly out at 2 in the morning, I have a 9 hour layover in Detroit. L I did a big set of backbends this morning in practice to counter sitting hunched over for so many hours. Who designed airplane seats?!

The last few weeks have been particularly full and eventful.

You probably read that a restaurant in Pune was blown up. That was a shock to everyone, the German Bakery is place where most of us have eaten over the years and we could easily imagine being among the 13 dead or 60 wounded. Terrorism is extremely personal to those who walked or could have walked in it's path. Man's inhumanity to man may be the big picture but the grieving parents of the bright,highly educated young kids that died is an image I won't forget. It was assumed that the target was a restaurant that many foreigners frequent, so anywhere that we frequent is now considered vulnerable. At the time of this attack, B.K.S.Iyengar happened to be helping someone high up in the Indian administration with a back problem, so we were seeing lots of armed guards around, and as it turns out it was probably some sort of protection. However it was also no secret that tons of foreigners are here, so they installed several army guards at the entrance to the institute and we have to sign in etc. So weird,and again so personal. The sandbags outside the gate with the armed guard seem to me to be a red flag "foreigners here"! , but what do I know.

I had a chance to visit Delhi over the weekend so I flew up there with a woman I have befriended over the years. She has a lovely store here, so it was a buying trip. I decided to have an India sale when I return, so I bought a few (!!!) things too. It was fun to see a new place and we had an exhausting great time.

I am so looking forward to being home, practicing in my practice room , bringing what I have learned into a deeper reality, and of course sharing it in my teaching. Being around B.K.S. Iyengar is to witness how far yoga can bring awareness; his perceptions, his precision, and at 92, his amazing practice are a message. Decoding it is our work.

Time to lug my bags downstairs. Think about coming to the retreat! We have to bring our group energy to this new place and breathe our yogic retreat energy into it!!

See you in class,

Namaste,
Mary