My Yoga Mat

The smell my yoga mat carries is one of my favorite smells.

Though it spends most of its life rolled up and tucked away in the corner of my bedroom, next to my dresser, it carries with it a special thing called love.

I fling it out before me and it settles, unrolled, onto my carpet.

It is aqua blue with navy lotus flowers painted all over, and it sparkles with flecks of sand, still, even though the last time I did yoga on the beach was over two years ago.

During mat sequences, particularly during child's pose, I rest my forehead against the soft blue and breathe deeply in. Eyes closed, I distinctly smell every place my yoga mat has ever traveled to.  I smell the shampoo from the downstairs carpet in our living room, I smell a lingering, but faint, pine tree smell mixed with cigar smoke from when I used to visit Becca at her house in Washington.  I smell the clear, strong smell of sand, and I feel the granules stick to my arms. Easily, I smell the musty old house I lived in during the Summer of 2012.  I smell a tiny hint of pine-sol from the bedroom floor in the rental condo we stayed in when my family went to Disneyworld several years ago. I can smell various lotions and perfumes which have loosed themselves from my body and mixed with the fibers of the mat. Distinctly, my nose can pick out the slight burnt scent of sun damage from countless afternoons spent sunbathing in the backyard, using my mat as a cushion to soften the cement patio.

Bad things don't happen on yoga mats.  Did you know that?  I'm fairly certain it's science and can be proven indisputably.

Here's what does happen on yoga mats:

• Relaxation
• Strengthening
• Surrender
• Laughter
• Happy fingers and toes
• Sun Salutations
• Acceptance
• Renewal
• Yoga
• Stretching
• Learning to love yourself
• Becoming a Warrior
• Breathing
• Stress-Relief
• Steadfastness
• Prayer

Also, memories.  Memories are made on yoga mats, and they're the best sort of memories, because they're tied to nothing but good feelings which cannot be altered.

Tonight, I'm thanking God for my steadfast friend which has seen me through many phases of my life.  Still, after seeing me at my worst and best, it lies outstretched, always ready to help me re-group. 

"Not my circus.  Not my monkeys."
-Polish Proverb