Yielding on My Way to Yoga
September 7, 2012
It’s a Miracle
November 23, 2012
Yielding on My Way to Yoga
September 7, 2012
It’s a Miracle
November 23, 2012

Family Cobra

The New York Times Sunday Magazine cover story features an entire family yoga-ing together. I’m usually a word nerd, reading and digesting the write-up and glancing at supporting graphics. The accompanying glossy picture, however, spoke volumes more to me than the article itself.

In it, four siblings and their parents are in dfferent yoga poses, each pose a unique combination of bend and reach. But the image is not one of a collection of internally focused individuals. The photographer captured what unifies them: the synchronicity of that focus. The children aren’t adjusting or re-angling or falling out of position — in the yogic sense nor in the literal sense. Ditto with the parents, who aren’t trying to maintain balance. They’re all fully there, in the same space.

Holy cow (pose), when does that happen in a family? No one is waiting for someone else to finish in the bathroom. No one is tuned in to an electronic device. No one is tuned out. Not a one is arguing, whining, pouting or late for somewhere else.

None report a chronic condition, a movement disorder. But that’s the point that struck me strongest. Clearly each family member has something going on, everyone does. In the cover shot, though, they appear so present, so aware, so together. A lesson I could use off the mat at my house.

The title of the piece refers to a family that cobras together.  Interestingly, none of them is in cobra pose, the benefits of which open the heart and relieve stress. Then again, perhaps that’s just what they’re doing.

 

2 Comments

  1. great thoughts Renee! … what a powerful and positive idea – yoga as a family activity! (kaitlynroland.wordpress.com)

  2. Renee says:

    Thanks, Kaitlyn. Gives a whole new meaning to ‘Family Practice!’

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