A comfortable pair of bluejeans

I stepped on my my mat this week early one morning for a little home practice.  I had a lot on my plate for my day in terms of errands and chores and just wanted to get a little mojo flowing before I stepped out to take care of business. As I started moving on the mat a straight Sun Salutation A came out and it felt really good. Nothing fancy, no variations, no earth shattering ah-has. It was like slipping into an old and very comfortable pair of jeans, washed and worn a thousand times, so soft and velvety it was as if it was a second skin. I repeated the Sun Sal A several times and as I went into the fourth set I hesitated with a moment of thinking, "I shouldn't do yet another. Where's the new stuff? I should be investigating and growing and exploring here on the mat." Am I a bad yogi for just sticking to plain ol' vanilla Suyra Namaskar A? It dawned on me I was indulging my tendency for black and white thinking. And along the way, when did familiar and comfortable necessarily become a four letter word?

God knows I've been through some massive life shifts and movements in the past few years out of my comfort zone and its been an incredible trip. Sometimes massively painful, at times incredibly uncomfortable, but always finding that in doing so it was well worth the entrance fee. I've learned a lot about fear, courage, mystery, beauty and joy and many shades of life in between, and clearly its a never ending journey. But it dawned on me this morning as I ran through numerous sets of Suns that the yummy familiarity of what I was feeling was less about the sequence and more about the comfort that I felt in my own skin. Wow, I thought to myself. How 'bout them apples?

One of my favorite old running buddies from high school is out here in sunny California on a combination business trip/family vacation. He had a business appointment in LA and had a few hours to spare in the city so we arranged to meet at the beach in Santa Monica for a bite to eat and a way long overdue check in. We haven't really been in touch in the 30 years since high school (gads has it been that long?) but the moment I plopped down into the beach chair on the deck of Shutters I melted into the familiar and comfortable. We had the most lovely afternoon together just chatting away. The three plus hour conversation flowed more like 'this is what's up in my life now and this is how I'm feeling'. No bravado, no gossip, just a good ol' fashion heart to heart. Of course there were the usual dips back into high school memories, met usually with shrieks of laughter with 'its amazing we didn't die doing some of that wild and crazy stuff'. But for the most part it was all about two long time Texan buddies hanging in the ocean view. It was familiar and comfortable and a huge gift to reconnect with him. 

As I drove up the PCH back to Ojai the sun was setting and the beauty of the California coast was magnificent. I didn't turn on the radio, I didn't pick up my cell phone I just cruised into the sunset smiling all the way home basking in the light of having enjoyed the most familiar and comfortable afternoon with my treasured friend Michael.