Ira Riklis: Views on Yoga

You just never know when you live in Vail who might walk into your yoga class. That nice looking older lady just might be a famous movie star (sorry, I don’t watch TV enough to know any more. My last favorite star was Ally McBeal in my pre-children TV watching days!)  Well, I guess I was so zen that even I did not notice until a friend informed me AFTER class that Marlo Thomas and Ira Riklis were in the class. (I had wondered if he did yoga if you remember.)

I really do need to get a life but to me yoga is yoga and even if I had know I probably wouldn’t have done anything any way. I do think Marlo is pretty cool for all of the work she has done with the hospital that she is associated with. So perhaps I might have asked about doing yoga with kids in the hospital.

Ira Riklis does have a cool movie out so perhaps he’d need to have a fabulous teacher do yoga on the set with the crew for his next movie. Or how about a reality yoga movie about the drama of yoga teacher training. Those camera crews might just sully the experience of the training though, so maybe not.

Perhaps next week in class I’ll take a closer look. I think I heard that Harrison Ford spends time in Vail…

So what do a lemon tree and  yoga have in common? Well, let’s see… first I have to admit my love for both. And the beautiful scenes of the lemon grove in the new movie “Lemon Tree” by  Ira Riklis is absolutely amazing.  I haven’t seen the entire film yet but know I will love it already just because of the lemon trees.  After trying to grow lemons for years inside my tiny apartment,  with little sun and never even a tiny yellow bud,  I can truly appreciate that beautiful grove of yellow diamonds.

Lemons are a lot like yoga – you have to have a taste for it. People will think you are a bit wacky for loving them. But them again I’ve always been a bit wacky, so why start caring about that now. As your love for these yellow guys expands you have to try every variation of food item even made with them. With yoga,  you want to try and learn every yoga pose ever done. I’ve  learned however, that eating lemons can backfire on you if you eat too many. Losing your sense of taste for a few days can really teach you moderation. Trying too many  yoga poses before you are ready can have the same impact. You learn the fear of never tasting again or becoming that middle age woman who has “back problems” and is always whining about it.

Makes me wonder if Ira Riklis eats lemons or does yoga? Or both?