Yoga Challenge

Last day of January today, thus the last day of the 30 Day Yoga Challenge placed upon me by Mary Brown.  Adrienne (on YouTube) is an amazing on-line yoga instructor.  The challenge inspired me but it is Adrienne who motivates me!  As a last day bonus, I had Holly in the room with me.  Adrienne always has her dog, Benji, in the studio with her so I was being a copy cat.  Holly & Helen have been in the room with me while I’m doing yoga before but I have made certain they are distracted with peanut butter.  Today, no distractions and I learned that Helen doesn’t need peanut butter while I do yoga, she took the day off to sleep in the rocker.  Holly, as anticipated, will need distractions still and likely until she is 13 years old.  She was fully engaged in the yoga poses and I was the one fully distracted.  But it was the last day bonus, similar to blue jean Friday!  If I had been wearing a go-pro camera, you would be having glimpses of her looking up at me with her head planted on the floor (remember Holly yoga), crawling underneath me, poking her nose between my extended arms and RedBall got thrown in there as well.  A few times I saw her sit back and study my flow, seemingly thinking about the pattern.  I found myself mentally willing her to stretch into a downward dog with me, but not today – not yet.

The 30 Day Challenge may be over but now it has morphed into a new challenge – can Holly be a yoga studio dog like Benji? A calm canine presence while the yogi goes through her routine.  That may be the motivation I need to extend yoga into February!

I emptied a roll of wrapping paper today and could’t resist having some fun with the empty cardboard tube.  As a telescope, Holly got shy.  As a bugle, Holly got rowdy.  And  as a sword, she got sheepish.   Helen wanted nothing to do with it and gave me the deadpan, no-eye-contact position.  I didn’t push it with her, she was obviously uncomfortable and doubting my idea of fun.   Holly and I had a few rounds of playfulness with the empty tube until she managed to get it from my grasp and begin a game of chase.  She found that chase was a little more complicated when holding a 4 foot tube in your mouth.  To her credit, she figured out how to surgically maneuver around the dining room and between the chairs and hutches by doing some head tilting & chest raising without knocking anything over!

Holly’s playful persistence mirrors her persistent playfulness!