My home practice has become much less of a frequent occurrence since we got our kitten, Lotus. She’s great and adorable and all, but we have a small apartment and she likes to attack my hair when I’m just sitting on the couch, let alone when I’m in downward facing dog.

Anyway, today’s practice was an improvement. I managed to make it through about 3o minutes before Lotus crawled under me while in child’s pose and bit my nose to remind me she was there, too. I guess it was sort of a blessing that it was a pretty difficult sequence, focusing on jumping up into handstand in different ways, and that might have scared her off a little, because I noticed her watching me with huge pupils, which usually means she’s stalking something and about to pounce. But she didn’t attack my flailing legs.

If you want to see the sequence I was flailing through, see this led class on Yoga Glo by Kathryn Budig. And for those of you who take my group classes, expect to see some versions of these prep poses within the next few weeks…

Eventually, I came to lie down for some stretching, and Lotus decided to be nice and put her front paws on my face and just purr into my ear. Adorable. Wish it could have continued into savasana though, because I was not so lucky there. Lotus decided to then latch three sets of claws into my hair and one on my eye. Not as adorable. No savasana for me.

Throughout the rollercoaster of this calico’s behavior (which is apparently common to the breed), my practice became not about getting into a handstand in the middle of my apartment, but just to have patience with both myself, and this five-pound tornado that wanted my attention. The beauty of it also happening to be a challenging class was that it literally demanded all of my attention in order for me to not fall on my face (and potentially fall on Lotus as well). Sometimes these humbling classes force us to not have any brain capacity for what doesn’t serve us at that precise moment, whether it’s the to-do list waiting on the other side of class, or the belief that you can’t do whatever pose is being asked for you to explore, or the expectation of a set of claws going into your leg within the next ten seconds.

I’m actually looking forward to my next home practice adventure with Lotus to see where it takes both of us. It will take some patience, but I’m pretty hopeful I’ll get some more purring time in future savasana sessions.

Follow our journey on my social media pages to meet #lotuschines and watch her grow up into a pretty cool cat along with me and my husband.

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