Saturday, April 9, 2011

Reading Along

I've picked up Poser: my life in twenty-three yoga poses by Claire Dederer from my local library and am making my way through. I'll save a full review for later since I'm only about a third in so far. For me, it's really interesting to read into the goings on in the yoga student's head... I forget what it's like not to know so many things about yoga. And it's a little fun that it came from the library as there are editorial notes here and there from a studious previous reader. Last night's reading brought me to this passage noted by my friend:

"I didn't know it at the time, but it was at this moment, when I decided that I couldn't be bothered to learn the right way to do yoga but that I would instead continue doing it, following my teacher and doing my work to the best of my ability, that I began to reap the fruits of yoga. Submission, trust, transmission from teacher to student, imperfection, the release of the ego -these were the things that would save me from myself, even if they were as unfamiliar as Krishna with his blue face. You can't go deeper and know what you're doing the whole time."


I love that last line.... "You can't go deeper and know what you're doing the whole time." It pretty much speaks to me in my life and teaching journey right now. Beautiful.

Have a great weekend.

3 comments:

Jennifer Williams-Fields said...

I'm interested in reading your review when you're done. I enjoyed the book but found her a little whiny at times.

Have you joined the Twitter book club? We read Poser last month and are now reading Holy Cow. Check it out on Twitter at #YOBC. Or read more about it at

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/04/not-your-mommas-book-club-join-the-yoga-book-club-on-twitter-yobc/

dancingyogini said...

Hi Jennifer... yes, i'll put a full review when I'm finished. I haven't joined the book club, thanks for telling me about it, i'm very interested. i'm still a twitter-avoider but i don't know how long i'll hold out. but i'll check out the club at the elephant journal site. Super Cool!
much love, Sarah

Audra said...

I really adored Claire's book. I can understand why someone might find it whimsy, but I also think that we all have times in our lives where we are like that -- and I appreciate memoirs where we get to really view a person, a real person in their life, rather than the heroic version people prefer to put up. I also really enjoyed reading about the different classes and teachers, both the the ones where she learns and the tongue-in-cheek mocking of the ridiculousness that sometimes sneaks into mainstream yoga.