Last Tuesday on June 1st, I held the first session of the summer series Yoga in the Park.
The class runs from 6-7 pm. It is a nice half hour walk from my home in Fremont to Meridian Park in Wallingford so I like to walk. I take my time, usually leaving around 5:10, giving myself time to arrive early and enjoy some quiet time before the group arrives.
Last Tuesday, dark clouds hovered overhead as I made my way to the park. In general, class is automatically canceled if there is rain or a downpour. Just dark clouds, so on I went. Half way there, it started to spritz, or was that rain? The whole time, I kept saying to myself, “Is this rain?” “No, it’s just mist.” “Yeah, it kind of looks like rain.” “Maybe it will stop.” “Yes, it has stopped.” “Oh no! It started again.” “Will anyone show up? Maybe I should turn around. No, I will just keep going.”
By the time I got to the park, it was a very light Seattle rain. In Alaska, there are a hundred different words for snow. In Seattle, there must be, has to be, a hundred different words to describe rain. Showers, downpours, drizzle, mist. I was told what was coming down was called VIRGA! Seriously!
At the half way point, I kept going because I had a feeling a few “die-hards” would be at the park waiting for me to lead the yoga session. And I was right. There was Simone, Don, Randy, and Ginger. Four hearty souls. They couldn’t be happier. Simone professed to love the rain. Ginger couldn’t agree more! They had scouted out a gazebo in the park which gave us perfect shelter from the rain and it was just big enough for the five of us! (Randy took this photo.)
And Ginger took this photo:
What can I say about the experience? It was beautiful. We were warm and dry. The air had a coolness to it, but the yoga warmed up our bones. Rain has its own perfume and we happily breathed it in and felt totally connected to the earth, the air, the rain. The yoga asanas felt liberating. We all faced outward and did the Warrior Poses. The gazebo is elevated of the ground so doing tree pose there made us feel like the gigantic sequoias along the northern California coast. There is nothing like doing the yoga asanas outdoors. It’s fantastic!
