The 51st Yogi

This morning, I almost missed the 9:30 am bikram yoga class. Acck!!!

I arrived in front of the building 5 minutes before the start of class. On my way to the third floor, I was met by two classmates and they told me that the studio is already full - 50 students were already tightly sqeezed inside, so they were told they couldn't accommodate more students. Oh was I sad, I didn't want to move. It meant that I would miss today's class cause the next schedule is at 3 pm. Just the same, I decided to go up and just change into normal clothes. *Sob.*

Now the yoga studio has a window where you can look inside. I bended down so my classmates won't see and take pity on poor me - like a kid left by the bus on the day of the class field trip. As luck would have it, my teacher Sherie was inside the bathroom and I whiningly said to her, "Sherie, I did not make it..." and she told me, you know what, I think I can find a space for you. She gets my mat, she goes inside and she tries my mat on top to the small pebble garden inside the studio (beside the pots). I thought she was joking but then I realized how addicted to yoga I was that I actually considered it! Then she goes, well maybe you can practice sideways - she found a spot for me which would position me facing the side mirrors when everyone else would face the front. What the heck! I was so happy, I took that spot!

I just love Sherie! During class, she told the rest of the class (including the other teachers, Betty and Ginger, and my other yogi friends) that I've been coming everyday and she saw how sad I was to be turned away. It was a bit weird squeezing myself in that spot, facing in another direction just to fit myself in the floor series. But oh boy, Sherie was right. It was my best class simply because I took it cause what's bad is missing that class (when you went from Caloocan all the way to Greenhills, climbed the building three floors up carrying your mat and wearing yoga clothes - including Shakti shorts and be turned away because the studio is full - never will I come to class just in time!)

I will forever remember that spot - where I knocked down my water bottle - with my hands, with my feet several time, where I nearly head-banged a classmate doing the sit-ups towards the end of the class (it was going way too smoothly, Sherie says). It wasn't the best spot in that studio but it was MY spot this morning. The spot where I did my deepest half-moon pose ever, the most stretch I made out of my hamstrings in the standing separate leg pose - touhing my forehead to the floor in both sets. Today I did not care about the pain, oh what happy pain, what pleasant heat, what sweet sweating. I'm utterly grateful to have attended that class, I love it. It made my day.