Experience Necessary

I've been doing a lot of yoga lately, and the teacher is a lovely, quirky young woman who keeps saying yoga is all about the experience. "Don't worry about locking into what you think is the perfect pose - have an experience," she says. I had no idea what she meant the first time she said that, but it sounded really nice.

On Saturday evening, I had the pleasurable experience of participating in a feminist poetry reading at Tsunami Books in Eugene, Oregon. My son and I took the bus there from his apartment. Since the bus stop was several blocks away from the bookstore, we walked the rest of the way, plunging into a rain storm. The wind kept blowing my umbrella inside out, and it rained so hard we had to leap over the little lakes that formed at every intersection. By the time we got to the reading, my socks were wet inside my shoes, but I couldn't have cared less because everything about the evening was pure magic. Tsunami Books is a small store filled with new and used books, greeting cards, calendars and even LP's. In the back, it has an intimate space for readings and other events - small enough that I could feel the words of the other readers resonate in my bones.

After the reading, my son and I went back to his apartment. He set out an air mattress for me in his spare room, and in the morning I got up and saw the shape of a tree through the blinds. I stretched and relished the experience of looking out the window as the sun rose in the sky.