Honoring the Class

It's coming to the end of the semester here at Cornell. I pretty much have the same schedule next semester, which means it's likely I'll be seeing a lot of similar faces, but the schedules of other students will surely shift, and I'll have to say bye to others.

I'd like to do something at the end of this semester to honor those who came with such amazing dedication and shared their practice. This isn't exactly a woo-woo friendly place and I don't want to make any assumptions or turn anyone off (when they are ready, the woo-woo will come). I tend to not talk about "spirit" and the "light within" all that much. Right now, I'm trying to think of a good way to end the class showing how grateful I am in movement and asana. Tricky, tricky, tricky.

If one pose, to you, was a symbol of gratitude, what pose would that be?

Sequence from this morning's class:

1. Begin on back, centering, breathing
2. Extend legs up to sky
3. Using core, bring extending legs out to right, and, moving like a pendulum, through center to the left. Keep the shoulders grounded on the mat
4. Repeat for about 1 minute, breathe smoothly
5. Extend legs to sky
6. Crisscrossing the legs move them to hover over the floor, and back up the sky. Continuing to crisscross lower and lift
7. Repeat for about 1 minute, breathe smoothly
8. Extend legs to sky
9. Eagle crunch (arms and legs bound in eagle while on back, bringing elbows towards knees and away). 12x each side
10. Release and roll to table
11. Cat/cow in table
12. "Thread the needle" in table, both sides
13. Uttanasana (Forward Fold)
14. Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Hand)
15. 5 Sun As
16. 3 Sun Bs. In the Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I), interlace fingers behind lower back. Inhale, open heart to sky, exhale take shoulder to inside of knee (hip stretch). In each Sun B, repeat this Warrior stretch.
17. Uttana Pristhasana (Lizard Pose). Hold, using props as needed, for 1 minute
18. Ardha Supta Kapotanasana (Half Reclined Pigeon). Moving foot across and knee down, come into reclined pigeon. Hold 1 minute.
19. Three Legged Downward Facing Dog, open hip by bending knee
20. Downward Dog
21. Repeat steps 17-20 on other side
22. Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand)
23. Halasna (Plow Pose)
24. Matsyasana (Fish Pose)
25. Supta Matysendrasana (Reclined Twist). Repeat other side
26. Savasana