Circus Clowns

I am so thankful that my mother made me do yoga at such a young age.  Okay, let me clarify, she never made me do anything except clean my room and I made a pretty poor attempt at best.  So I remember being oh about probably 5 years old and my mom would do the Raquel Welch Total Body and Fitness video.  I remember watching my mothers beautiful Eagle Pose.  For a long time I would just watch gazing a my mom and then at Raquel in her zebra print bathing suit.  Then I wanted to try. I started to do the video even when my mom wasn't around. That video stayed with us for years.

When my father passed away, my mom and I moved to Maui, HI.  Of course we took Raquel with us.  We did the Total Body & Fitness quite often.  I would show my friends this workout...."uh, well I think it's yoga" I would say.  At that time yoga was not such a buzz word, especially for 6th graders.  Over time, the video started to deteriorate, but we kept using it.  I remember mastering my headstand in 7th grade showing all my friends, they really didn't give a shit! 

I was a swimmer, that was my focus in life from 7th grade until my senior year when I decided to just be a kid again.  I used to tell my friends (only the close ones) that I wanted to be in the circus.  Ha ha, okay so growing up in Hawaii was a little tricky.  Umm, I was a Haole Girl, a white girl, there were very few us in my high school.  So already I was different, but it was never really an issue but it was always there.  So when I would say that I wanted to be in the circus it was like, wow that must be a haole thing.  I would say I want to be in the Circe De Soleil.  You mean like a clown? My friends would say.  You want to be a circus clown?  No, like an an acrobat, I would reply.  Again blank stares and confusion...the Cirque De what the hell is she talking about?!

I eventually moved to California for college.  A few years later after realizing that we hated living so far away from each other, my mother moved here too.  Unfortunately, Raquel did not make it in the move.  We were both devastated.  For years I googled, ebay'd and yahoo'd the video with no luck.  About 2 months ago, I searched for it again on a whim.  I found it!  I found like 30 of them, what the hell?  Of course it so old school that it dose not come on DVD, luckily unlike most people my mother still has a VCR.  So, this her Christmas gift.  I am soo excited to give it to her.  

That video to me, reminds me of all the beautiful moments my mother and I have had. Throughout the years, yoga has been one of the many things that binds us.  I am so thankful for this opportunity that I have with Lulu's to relish deeper into this love affair.