Monday Morning with ...: A Scene On A Bus

Saturday, June 22, 2013

A Scene On A Bus

And it wasn't a pretty one. A father was taking his mentally-retarded daughter to pick up some medicines (a long way from home) early in the morning ~ and she just wouldn't have it. She (not a girl but a grown up woman) just wanted to get off. The older man wouldn't let her. He yelled, he slapped her, he looked around, evidently, embarrassed. Several thoughts went through my head: is the woman being kidnapped? Why did she want to leave the bus? Is she dying to go to the loo? Then a woman sitting in front of them tried to calm her down (too young to be the mother, maybe a sister? A cousin? A helper?) Anyway, the girl eventually sat still ... and I got off the bus before they did.

Sometimes we complain about our lives: oh, things are not going the way we want; we feel being hard done by; life is unfair etc however, many of us don't have to deal with situations like the one above. Think of that family: the old man, his daughter, their relatives ... every day of their lives is probably a struggle, every day is about getting by without any major incidents. If our glass half full or half empty? This blog entry, however, is not about showing pity but how perhaps we can all be more humble and more appreciative of what we have.

Jeremy Piven doing the split!! Note his back leg:
that is where the hip flexor gets stretched

I'm going to be away from the mat this weekend, I think; the past week I've been doing quite a lot of splitting (on a tall block!) ... dunno why, of late, all of a sudden every instructor wants us to split (latest yoga trend?!?) Oh well, at least I'm (or my bum is, rather) - slowly - being gravitated towards the ground. I think it has as much to do with loosen hamstring in the front leg as stretched hip flexors in the back leg. And the more Yin poses I practise the more "relaxed" these muscles have become. And when it the pose, it actually feels quite good (!!!) However, here is one pose that you have to do a lot of warm up for. I think the last hamstring injury I had (which lasted some nine months to a year) was split-induced. I just have to be extra mindful while doing this pose ~ the rule of engagement applies here ~ so to avoid tearing the hamstring.

So, will play a bit more One Piece ~ which is getting more fun when more characters are unlocked. My favourites at the moment are Smoker and the literally the cool dude Kuzan ...