INDEPENDENCE DAY

- JoAnna Ross, Yoga by the Dozen Founder

Wow another 4th of July is here. When I think of the word INDEPENDENCE I think of this one student, Duke that I use to teach yoga to. We were learning a really hard pose that day and Duke nailed it. I was so proud. He was five years old and doing crow pose, bakasana for all you yogais out there, like he was born upside down and walking on his hands. Duke would hold the pose for a long time. He didn’t want to come down from the pose and was up again before I knew it. The class had ended and all the 20 little kids were dismissed one at a time to get their shoes back on. I noticed Duke was struggling with his new sneakers that now had laces instead of Velcro. He started to cry and I quickly went over to him. He was really frustrated that he couldn’t tie his shoelaces. I looked right at him and said Duke, you will learn to tie your shoelaces someday but not a lot of people will learn to do crow pose. SO for today I will help you with your laces but you remember that you did a pose that is really difficult.

Kids. There are funny. They want to grow up and be independent so quickly. I am glad that they invented shoelaces so I can still be there to help along the way and maybe teach them a little but of what I know.