It’s about 100 degrees here in Roswell today. It’s Friday. And it’s the end of the school year. My 6am class this morning —  usually between 4 and 8 people — had just one. It can be awkward for the student, I’m guessing, to be the only one who shows up. Sometimes, one will even say I can just go home instead, and that makes me laugh. I think about those times in my own practice when I really wanted to get to a yoga class and was glad it was there happening. And I think of those times, too, when I didn’t really feel like practicing, but knew I’d feel better as soon as I got there to a class. I know how important it is to have the class whether you are the only person or the 50th person to show up.

This morning I was particularly glad to have the student who did show up. She’s been coming recently to my 6am class, and I knew that she was having trouble with her wrists bothering her. Right then, I thought about how important it is to enjoy one’s practice; her wrists needed a little attention, a break. I liked not being weighed down by my plan; I threw away the sequence I was going to teach, and instead we took the hour to go easy on her wrists and help her enjoy some balancing and heart-opening asanas. Let her take her hands off the ground. In some way, we both were able to practice lightness.