We have lots of mosquitoes in our backyard.  I mean it.  I seem to be more delicious than most as I can be covered in bites despite spray, despite moving around, swatting, and cursing them violently.  You might say, “Rachel that’s exactly why you get bit…because you are focusing on them and going crazy”.  Well, maybe so.   I am not so spiritually enlightened to not be bothered by mosquitoes.

Last weekend I was at my husband’s company party and was talking to this woman who after hearing that I taught yoga and was a pastor said, “Wow, you must be so serene and grounded.”  I replied back with a “urr, well, hm…”.

My reply should have been something like, “No, actually I’m not.  That’s why I have to do yoga.”

At my early morning yoga class today, one of the students said something that bit me like a mosquito.  It wasn’t big and it didn’t hurt me at all.  It just drove me insane.  It was said just before class started and as soon as I said “namaste” to end the class my mind started scratching frantically at the bite.  To be honest, I scratched it every chance I got during the class too.  I would like to say that I exhaled it all out and came out of the class refreshed and cleansed of those annoying thoughts – but seriously – it aint so.

I’ll keep practicing letting go and not scratching.  I’ll focus on my breath, ease up my jaw,  soften my shoulders, come back to the present moment…do all those things that I teach and have to practice again and again.  Because mosquito bites drive me crazy; yoga teaching pastory person that I am.

And come to the Daily Bread Yoga retreat this Saturday, 9a.m.-noon. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church at 2200 S. Philo Rd., Urbana. Bring a yoga mat (if you have one), a bottle of water, and $20.  Come, Come, Come.  Especially if you are not serene or flexible and are easily annoyed by mosquitoes. Me too.