Ardha Mandukasana -- The Half-Frog Pose

Lying prone on the ground with one leg bent at right angles and the other extended straight out is a reliable way to release tension around my sacrum. In other words, it's good for tight asses. Over the last week or so, I haven't been able to get enough of this asana. And now, as I walk, my wiggle quotient has skyrocketed. This tushie of mine is loose and free. Been too tense for most of my life. Good girls don't shake their behinds. Whether or not I've been a good girl, I'm not sure -- but I sure wanted the world to think I was. So -- I squeezed my butt as firmly as I could. And squeezed all the life out of my spine as I did so.

Now, like a frog, I'm loose and ready to jump. Am I still a "good girl?" Don't know, but this freedom sure feels a heck of a lot better.

My kids are leaving me behind to re-be me as they become themselves. When I was first becoming me -- in those years between birth and adulthood -- and all the world was pushing me down, I would get into sarvangasana, a.k.a., shoulder stand pose, so that all the me that had been tamped down could return my heart and head. Balanced there on my neck and shoulders with my legs and feet pointing toward the heavens, I could see the world turned upside down -- the way I wanted it to be so that I, a young, assertive female, could be on top, not on the bottom where my 60's world was telling me I belonged.

Almost a half century later, my feet are full and can no longer hold any more of the true me. It's time to put my life into sarvangasana. I expect that the world I will there will be much more to my liking.

Welcome to my year of standing on my own shoulders.

Namaste