Day 10: Away from the wall action...was fine until deciding on some one leg action and taking it a little too far causing me to flip over and crash to the ground. No major injuries, just a bruise on my hip...lesson learned.

Day 17: Last handstand before my little facial fall. The L-shape. The following morning I fainted and it was deemed necessary to take a break to get my bearings back, hydrate, and let my face heal. We weren't going to risk having me get dizzy or pass out during a handstand, so I took it easy for four days.

Day 19: Palm-tree yoga or the start of tree handstands in general. Discovered that one of our palm trees in the backyard works perfectly for handstands, located a safe distance from the canal so as not to fall into that body of water.

Day 23: Some more beach time handstands and use of tress. The story behind this incident is that I wanted to use this big broad trucked tree to insure I had good support (and wouldn't fall off the cliff), but A. thought the smaller tree was safer since it's wasn't in front of as sharp a drop off...well, for once, he was wrong. I just incurred some scraps (nothing serious) and a bruised ego. I then went ahead and did a handstand at the originally intended tree, success. Lesson learned: if at first you don't succeed, simply try again (somewhere else)!

Day 30: another beach highlight but much more successful. At Fort Hase beach, on Sunday morning, no one else was out there, it was windy, and the sky was absolutely beautiful. Really nice start to the day. 

"Someday, somewhere - anywhere, unfailingly, you'll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life."--Pablo Neruda

Day 32: first attempts at self-timing photography. This was the best picture of the patch, it's a start! Once A. got home, the photography got much better. Threw in a little leg action for fun to celebrate St. Patty's day, was trying for a heel click, but that just scared A.

Day 36 & 37: Anniversary weekend handstands. On a balcony, nice breeze, and a great view of Diamond Head. Perfection. Great surprise from A. 

Honest yoga...and what exactly would that entail? Well, according to me, honest yoga is the yoga you do when you can. A yogi(ni) who may not have time or energy to fit in a class or "full" home practice but still fits yogi in? Yes, that's honest yoga. 

Since being in Hawaii this last month plus, I've certainly found myself following this sort of yoga practice. Have I had fatigue and extenuating circumstances? Yes, but even with that I get my "yoga on" daily in even the most basic of ways. Why even bother if I'm not fully committing? Well, that wouldn't be very yogic of me now, would it! 

Even though the type-A side of me very much feels this way about doing something completely and in a certain way, I have much more important things to be caring for. Like my health and jeopardizing that is the opposite of my goal. So, I'll continue to take my home practices however short or scattered throughout the day they may be...5 minutes here, 10 there...it does add up. And it's me being more intuitively aware of what my body actually needs instead of spending a whole class doing something that drains me out instead of building me up. Group yoga classes, I will return to you. But in the time I need to, without fear of excessive heat or germy people. I will be back. But until then, I'm flying solo and building up my strength and endurance.