Sisters

I don't have a lot of energy to write tonight, but I'm committed to trying to blog my experience here daily.

My back was exceptionally sore when I woke up this morning.  Painfully so.  If I had just been casually going to yoga instead of being committed to this crazy venture of mine, I likely would have skipped out and gone back to sleep.  I am glad I didn't skip out, because I was able to ease off the gas and coast through the class, getting my back warmed up and loosened up while still making honest attempts at every set of all the postures.

I've said a little about my older sister, and since that first post she has been even more supportive and helpful.  In addition to the general kind words and excitement she has sent my way, when she read about my back hurting this morning, she sent me a link to a blog post: Bikram Yoga and Back Pain.  It is a great read if you have back pain and you're currently practicing Bikram Yoga, or thinking about it.

I read the blog between my morning and afternoon class, and the biggest thing I took from it was to focus on my core, so I will be focusing on really strengthening my core for the time being.  I'm taking everything one class at a time and really listening to what my body is telling me, instead of being bullheaded about powering through like I am sometimes prone to do.

I have really awesome sisters, as I think I've mentioned.

When I turned 30, my sisters orchestrated something truly spectacular, getting people who had known me throughout my life to write something about me, then they pasted them to the backs of pictures of me over the years and strung them across the room at my birthday party.  The only thing better than that was my young niece for months afterward constantly saying "Happy Birthday, Preston."  My nieces and nephew are an absolute joy in my life, and just another wonderful and awesome thing about my sisters.

Me and my three sisters

If I really think about it, it really is no surprise that I am doing Bikram Yoga.

Drawing and writing are two of my great loves in life, and I can trace my early excitement for both back to my older sister.  I remember when I was just learning to draw she taught me how to draw a really simple room in perspective by drawing a box, and then lines from the four corners of the box to the corners of the sheet of paper.  I probably drew different variations of that room hundreds of times as a child, fascinated with the idea of giving depth to a flat piece of paper.

I've been writing creatively for nearly as long as I can remember.  Floating around somewhere at my parents house is a story I wrote when I was very young titled, the Garden in the Bathroom about a little boy who goes into a bathroom and is transported to another world of sorts.  Very much after inspirations such as the Phantom Tollbooth and classic episodes of Doctor Who that I don't remember watching.

I can still remember how I felt listening to my mother and older sister as she was working on a creative writing project for school.  I can't even remember any details other than the fact that I wanted to write like she did.

She ran track in high school.  I did field in high school.

Once she went through teacher training, my eventual foray into Bikram Yoga became inevitable.

I wish I could say that my sister and I have always been close.  We haven't been.  I can say I am glad we still love each other after all these years, and that she still tries to be a helpful and loving older sister.

Namaste.