more pigeons in my future

6 am, I am sitting on the floor on my pretty, burnt orange yoga mat with the big koi design on it.

I usually grab a rolled up mat from the bin against the wall to slip under me when I sit cross-legged, but this morning I didn't.

so I sit, cross-legged, in a gentle Indian style. this used to be one of my favorite positions, and with something beneath me that tilts my hips, I still like this position. but without something beneath me, I feel pain. my knees are seven or eight inches from the ground, and there's not a way on this green earth that they will drop any closer to the ground.

my hip flexors are tight.

so tight it's scary.

after we quietly greet ourselves, we stretch this way and that, then re-cross our legs so that the leg that was first behind is now in front.

surely this way will be more comfortable.

nope.

I am every bit as tight on this side as I was on the first.

ow.

now I know I'm not the most flexible thing on earth---no gumby here, you know---but it seems I've tightened up more than I realized over the winter.

sigh.

the cure?

pigeons.

yep, I have a few pigeon poses in my future. of course mine don't look quite like the one pictured above, but it's good to have a goal, isn't it? might as well pick a good looking model to aspire to.

a pigeon here, a pigeon there, and next thing you know, I'll be able to sit cross-legged again without dying.

at least that's my hope.