Backbends, Bricks, Bacon, and BM's: Random Thoughts On a Rainy Day

photo credit

So...I really liked my new yoga teacher and studio until the end of class the other day when she had us do 10 deep, long breathes in wheel. This is not an abnormal length for the pose but one I don't really look forward to doing...(I try to avoid anticipation in yoga but I fail at times). I take really long breaths so that was about a minute and a bit...

I completed the 10 breathes and then self-congratulated and began to feel the warmth and change in my spine. That is when she announced we could (should?) do 25 breathes in wheel. I could not believe it and had to chuckle at the insanity of the request. This meant about 4 mins of long slow breathes, in a position where your ribcage barely wants to change size, shape, and volume. I did it anyhow.

IT was freakin' hard and I was feeling it for days...
I was sort of feeling the muscle soreness and self-soothing the next day when I came across this video and I reminded myself that these sensations were probably standard for many folks: people with chronic pain, muscular disorders, manual laborers, trauma victims, the abused. For much of the world, feats more impressive and awkward are preformed everyday around the world in effort to just survive or make a wage.



I can smell the somatic dysfunction of this poor man over the internet waves. Crazy stuff...bet he needs an osteopathic manipulation or two.

Anyhow, I am going back today to the same teacher to see if she always encourages such self-inflicted brutality.

As for the bacon...SAD news. Another passing at the farm. This time, Timmy the pig had to be put down. It seems his back may of broken under his weight and perhaps he paralyzed his hind legs as he could not stand all of a sudden.



(Timmy and I in better times, enjoying a laugh! (censored for med blogging anonymity))




Timmy was an experiment of sorts. Most pigs of this variety are turning into bacon ASAP. But Tim was brought to us by a hippy, artist friend after he was found abandoned in the woods after some people had left their house. He grew up at our farm with Madison, the pot-bellied pig, in green pastures and with endless dinner leftovers. He lived the best life a pig could really. To my mom, he was a sort of science project, pig behavior experiment. Her observations after his death...

"Pigs are really quite social. Timmy loved to have his skin cleaned by the guinea hens, to hang out with Madison the pig, and to be around the other farm animals. He loved to have this skin rubbed but only very lightly and only in the direction of his course hairs. He loved to make nests and routinely used several bales of hay to perfect his spot under the barn. Timmy was a character." (loosely quoted)

Tim was not fat but his legs could hardly hold his shear size and he often had pretty cool muscle fasciculations as he stood and walked. We tried to excercise him by putting his food out in the pasture a ways but after watching him struggle later in his life, it just seemed cruel so he got the luxury lifestyle...bread, veggies, leftovers near his bed of hay.

R.I.P. Timmy

AND...in other animal news..Pombe..our younger male Chesapeake bay retriever cost us another $150 bucks at the vet after partially ripping his nail off the quick so bad he was squealing in pain every time he got nudged or moved. That dog is getting into the thousands this year. He shows no caution when playing and it shows in his injuries. Just got a call from home that he was so out of it from the anesthesia that he had a big BM (dump) on our kitchen floor. THanks pombe! Little bastard...