Shivas Ana and Ichabod

Where would we be without our pets during COVID? Shutter to think!

#pets #susanstrasser #amwriting #susanstrasserblog

So let me tell you about Shivas Ana with Ichabod this morning. I started doing yoga or range of motion stretches three days a week before dawn. Lately, I’ve been doing them in the basement. This morning, I even pulled out my lovely old green Gaia yoga mat with a tree on it. Amongst the dingy sea of brown wall to wall rug that my family and I tread daily, I had marked my space. This was my mat. Plus the people in the video have these fancy mats that the app— Romwod– sells. No thanks.

So anyway, the sets are about 15-20 minutes long and they always have the “rebound” at the end. Shivas Ana. You can call it whatever you want! I remember. I do two sets of Romwod, or Range-of-Motion/Workout of the Day, three mornings a week. I feel kinda silly doing the rebound at the end of the first set because I know that I’m going to do another set, but I do it anyways. I decided that I should be gentle with myself. After all, I am doing two sets. But I remember Shivas Ana from the yoga classes at the studio…

It’s the best! At the end after all your hard work stretching, the teacher made the announcement:

“We will now prepare for Shivas Ana..”

The first time I was like what?

But it doesn’t take long to figure out that in yoga you earn some strange time to relax. The instructor would give you like a full minute to get situated, dim the lights, ask if anyone wanted a blanket, suggest you get in whatever position you want, your side, back…etc… and then you got like FIVE WHOLE MINUTES TO LIE THERE and do nothing. Which as I typed this, I find some Twilight music playing because a couple of weeks ago at my Tuesday night twelve step meeting someone had shared how their sponsor suggested that they practice doing nothing for FIVE WHOLE MINUTES. Whoa.

So, I decided last week (this is my third week of my app) I’d go all out for the second “rebound” and go Shivas Ana. Meaning, I may or may not dim the lights, but I’m getting myself a blankie at least. And giving myself a good five minutes. Heck yeah!

Ichabod? He’s my princely cat, the finicky feline with the cats-fantastic. Occasionally he will honor you with his presence, but usually, no thank you. Usually, in the evening he visits me on the couch for a few minutes and lets me pet him and we might even rub noses, but this is not to be counted on.

Well, this wild fellow decided to nest on me during Shivas Ana this morning! There I was, covered up and cozy, and I felt him between my knees. I looked up a second to see that it was him, not Gwen, our Garfield girl. Yep, it was him. Acting like it was no big deal to lie on me and my blanket on the floor at 6:00 a.m. in the basement.

Yours during Shivas Ana, Mom! he seemed to say.