G- Grace to be an acolyte, a servant of art, is the best prayer an artist can offer. The grace to begin again – one more time – a beginner, is the most useful position an artist can take. 
Julia Cameron, Finding Water

An acolyte, a beginner, again. After a four year break, I decided to try a new yoga studio for a Bikram (the he who must not be named of yoga) -style hot class. I had done a similar class in the month leading to the pandemic shut down, and with the chaos of the months following, the studio owner transitioned to online classes, and with Texas weather, most of us could find a 100+ degree practice area literally in our own backyards. And as the years passed from that time, my practical side said, “we don’t need other pay for yoga – it’s something we can find on You-Tube for free. (Yes, I prefer the royal we when I am having bad ideas. I feel it’s easier to spread the blame for stupidity that way.)

Anyway, it’s exactly five years later. And I found myself in a hot yoga studio on the inexpensive-suck-you-in month plan. In a room that was the perfect 105 degrees F and the required 40% humidity. The familiar 26 or so poses. (Studios have their own version to not be sued, of course.) Familiar to my mind yes, but it seemed that my body forgot them all, or at least how to do them. I was a beginner again. While I fully admit there were a few poses that I had never been able to do (Standing Head to knee defies gravity – how is it even possible?) I was a beginner with things I had once been able to do – awkward chair, bow, dance…it would have been so easy to say let’s eat the sunk cost and never come back.

And yet, I went back. Shut up, Pride, we are going to be a beginner again. We are going to listen to the cues, we are going to concentrate on our breath and let things happen. We are going to accept the help, of blocks, of straps, and lean into the inevitable failure, the marks of beginner. Because in the midst of it all, embracing the stage, the beginning, we are making the loud announcement. We have hope. Hope that even if we do not master the work, we will continue to do the work, to try, to accept small wins. Small wins are all we have sometimes. 

Welcome to my latest exercise in an attempt to reach my goal of being a prolific writer in 2025. So, in addition to writing 1 short story each week (Because Ray Bradbury said you can’t write 52 bad ones – challenge accepted!) I will  post an entry from my Commonplace book and a short note on why the quote spoke to me on that day. I can hear you now – sucky stories and random quotes? Sign me up.

For more information about the blogging challenge, see http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/)