If it's not this or that it's the other thing

Joe said I had Yoga Fever. Apparently lots of people come here and do too much yoga and then get a fever for a day or two. I don’t know if it was the yoga or the food or missing my family so much during the holidays that did it, but I was up for a couple of nights either moaning in pain and thinking I had Malaria, or trying desperately to breathe through my nose and stop my mouth from salivating so much. The day I felt better was the day the tears came. My friend Annie sat with me on a random curb that morning, supplying me with tissues while everything poured from me…everything I have been trying to be so strong about. But being strong sometimes means crying instead of not crying. The tear phase hasn’t really ended. “Have you gotten your period, Wren?” Joe asked me as I told him about my day.

The air in India is especially disgusting to the sickly. Everyone reading this at home should take a deep breath of the air around them and be thankful for it. Coughing has taken on a new meaning to me, here.

I am feeling better now, though. I got to talk to my Mommy, whom I miss more than I thought I would. Nothing like a fever and the holidays to make little ol’ me miss my mother like crazy. Halloween was fine, Thanksgiving was fine, but the impending Christmas without my family is feeling very hard. Although my Christmas will be quite fun, I believe. A lot of cooking and a little gift exchanging with Team Iyengar. We have a house with an oven to spend Christmas day at, so I am planning to make pies with my mother’s pie crust recipe. If I can’t have my Mom, I can at least have her pie.

I have narrowed down my list of things that are important to me and my life to five generalizations: my family, my community, yoga, fashion/fiber arts, and music. Simple enough, I think.

At the Shala, I am known as “the Girl.” I am still not sure if Guruji even knows my name, and I am also the only female and have been for ages, now. Women come and don’t come back, possibly because they have been frightened off by the harsh scolding the Guru gives everyone when they first start with him. The other day, when I finished my Mudras course, he showed me the certificate I have earned which he will be giving me when I leave. It certifies that I have completed teacher training.