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Patrick has talked about Matthew Sweeney’s Simha Krama sequence from his new book, Vinyasa Krama.

I finally got a chance to try the sequence out this morning. May I say it totally rocks?

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Let’s start from yesterday, when I went to an all-levels Anusara class with a friend from work. We did a lot of nice alignmenty stuff, and then moved into some backbends. Ustrasana, for one.

I always feel lame when I do the intermediate backbends, because I am exquisitely aware of all of the little details I want to fix.

So I do my ustrasana, and when I come up, the teacher is standing at the front of my mat.

“You’re a backbender…” she says, with a knowing smile.

I shake my head and snort. “No,” I say, laughing — and perplexed that she’d make that mistake.

When we get to urdhva dhanurasana, I look around in the mirrors. Huh. My urdhva dhanurasana is most… arched? tall? advanced? Whatever. At first I take this as a reflection of the experience of the students in the class, but then I realize what a dope I am being. In my home yoga room, where I measure myself against some ideal, I always have more to do and further to climb. Here in an actual class with people, I have a nice urdhva dhanurasana.

Still, that doesn’t make me a backbender, like the teacher thought. It’s taken years, every DAY, to get here.

Meanwhile, my friend, who is a beginner, bent back into ustrasana quite handily. The teacher then suggested we do laghu vajrasana — the old version, where you grab your thighs instead of your ankles.

She asked me and my friend to do it and had the rest of the class watch. I could do it, because I’ve been hitting my head against the wall of backbends every morning for some years now. My friend could do it because she just can. She could have a smoking kapotasana in less than a month if she set her mind to it.

“You’re a backbender!” I exclaim excitedly when she comes back up. She has no idea what I’m talking about.

“Most people are either more forward bendy or more backward bendy. I’m forward bendy,” I say, falling forward flat onto my legs as a demonstration. She leans forward with her back curled and hands oustretched, far from her feet.

Suddenly I feel so grateful for Ashtanga, for the things I’ve learned — both physical and mental/emotional. I’m also reminded, as class proceeds, about how very pose-specific Ashtanga is. Yup, I’m good at the ones I’ve worked my way through, but I’m also intensely disoriented by poses I *don’t* practice every day. Basically, it comes clear how specialized Ashtanga has made me.

Okay, this little digression brings me to Simha Krama. Which is gorgeous. The chandra namaskara opening is, as Patrick mentioned, just marvelous. As I began the first lunge, I noted that the left leg goes forward first. What?! I had to laugh at the suspicion I felt in response to this apparent disregard for the “right leg first” rule. And then I remembered something that happened at Matthew’s workshop in Minnesota. He asked me to demonstrate a standing pose — can’t remember which one — so I did the first side. Then he asked me to do the other side, and when I went to shift to face the other end of the mat, in standard Ashtanga protocol, he said, “No, stay facing in the same direction, just change your feet.” And then he laughed as I blundered about and was totally flummoxed by the insurmountable challenge of doing something different from what I usually do.

Therein lies the potential pitfall of blind devotion to practice. Flexible body, not-so-flexible mind.

Okay, so what did I find out about Simha Krama? It’s about hips and shoulders, and the subtle relationships between. About halfway through, I thought about the salabhasana-bhekasana-dhanurasana-ustrasana-laghuvajrasana-kapotasana gauntlet, and wondered how a non-backbender like myself might make her way through to some sort of grace. There is no doubt that there is something to be had in doggedly pursuing the traditional path.

But what a joy to do a reverse anjali mudra in salabhasana (salabhasana C in this series), and how revealing to feel the back and shoulders during a reverse anjali mudra in ustrasana (ustrasana C). My favorite pose of all is ardha baddha padma ustrasana, half-bound ustrasana, where the arm that is grabbing the lotus leg makes a soothing cradle for the lumbar.

As Patrick mentioned, the series is about lotused legs and ustrasana bendings — all kinds of variations that challenge the hips to think about subtle relationships to shoulders, and vice versa.

Will I reach some rarefied heights of subtle awareness if I keep grinding out salabhasana-bhekasana-dhanurasana-ustrasana-laghuvajrasana-kapotasana? It’s a really interesting question. I *know* there are people who can find those subtleties, those awarenesses, in the classical series. Always, though, my own personal struggle with backbending (and I mean both physical and mental/emotional struggles here) have blinded — or perhaps desensitized — me to the kaleidoscopic subtleties of the hip/shoulder relationship.

Obviously, it’s always easier to be aware in new situations — and this sequence was a new situation. Could I turn it into a rote grind? Oh, yeah. Let’s just hope I’ve learned enough from yoga that I can avoid doing that.

Tyler has learned to scramble up on the couch. He’s a huge cuddler, but a cuddler with a mischievous side. He likes to bring a toy to chew and then cuddle up with me. Every so often he’ll reach over and bite my sleeve, to see if I’m paying attention.

Right now he’s cuddled up beside me with a toy he picked out at Petsmart yesterday. We were there looking for medicated shampoo and lidocaine spray for his itchy skin.

One of Tyler’s favorite older toys is a black, white and brown cow:

Yesterday, he rifled through a bin of brightly colored toys and selected this one:

The cowball. Basically, it’s a ball dressed in a cow suit. Made in China. I always imagine stuff like this is made by Chinese prisoners who wonder what the hell is going on — why do Americans want rubber balls dressed in cow suits?

I am amused that Tyler seems to like cows, and that he picks toys in a color palette to match his own markings. Even more amusingly — the toys and Tyler match the decor in our living room.

A few minutes ago, as we sat on the couch, he paused in his games with the cowball to watch a YouTube of Lino doing the exit from kukkutasana. Tyler started paying attention when he heard Lino’s voice. Hilariously, he started whimpering during the close-up of Lino doing nauli during the pose. I couldn’t agree more.

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I’ve been trying *everything* to try to solve Tyler’s skin issues. The antibiotics that the vet prescribed don’t seem to be doing anything at all. Guess it isn’t staph.

Quite honestly, my concern is partly selfish. He wakes me every morning at 3 AM with his frenzied scratching and biting. So basically, I haven’t slept past 3 AM for the past 6 weeks. I am very tired.

I’ve tried topical lotions: hydrocortisone cream and spray, lidocaine spray, aloe vera, shea butter, coconut butter, medicated shampoo. I’ve tried dietary changes: a grain-free kibble, EFAs. I’ve tried medications: benedryl, antibiotics. I’ve even tried environmental changes: hypoallergenic laundry detergent.

Last night, though, I tried something new. A colloidial oatmeal bath. Usually when Tyler gets a bath, he splashes around and is restless. Last night he just sat in the oatmeal bath and rested his head in the crook of my elbow as I leaned over the tub. Oh, and he enjoyed drinking some of the delicious oatmealy water.

And then he slept straight through to 5 AM.

Thank God.

Still seems a little itchy this morning, but MUCH less than usual. And I want to try an oatmeal bath myself — my hands were REALLY soft after I gave him his bath.

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Plans for today include a Saturday practice. I have been reading Matthew Sweeney’s new book, and want to try the Simha Krama sequence.

It’s really fun to read Matthew’s writing. Since the workshop in July, I can imagine his voice when I read his words, and it’s very amusing to hear it all in an Australian accent.

Had a crim practice yesterday at the Anusara studio. Well, crim by Ashtanga standards. A-okay by karma yoga standards: I went at the request of a co-worker who wanted to check out some yoga studios. She’s new to yoga and wanted to try some local studios. I told her about this place and went as moral support.

It was fun, we laughed, and I discovered she is a natural backbender. Very exciting to see someone who can bend backwards really easily. She’s a huge extravert. I always wonder if extraverts tend to be more backbendy than introverts. Anyhow, it’s clear she’ll be game for Ashtanga, and I think primary would suit her marvelously (so she can get the forward bend thing worked out). Amazingly, it occurs to me that there are no led classes available in this area at this time. There used to be at least a few to choose from in different parts of town.

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And I leave you with a dose of cuteness: Tyler and The Cowball