I was fully prepared to mope about this weekend after saying goodbye to Matt for the next four months but those plans were derailed at 0400 Sunday morning. I was pulled out of a peaceful dream by a loud, eerie, screeching noise which I immediately dismissed as some sort of bird outside my window. Unwilling to open my eyes, I rolled over to go back to sleep. That's when I heard the noise again. On the other side of my apartment. The side with no windows. With the realization that whatever was making that noise was IN MY APARTMENT, I did what any rational person would do; I hid under the covers. Strangely, this technique did not make the noise go away. I finally summoned enough courage to lower the blankets a bit and discovered a bat flying inches overhead. After another 10 minutes or so of hiding... I mean planning... I put my big girl pants on and army crawled over to the window to give the bat an escape route. Despite maniacally watching the window until sunrise, I didn't see the bat again.
Sunday was spent reviewing the generous morsels of advice given to me by facebook friends as well as working myself into a tizzy reading the intricacies of what happens to one who contracts rabies. Anxiety - check. Paranoia - check. Terror - minicheck. In an attempt to distract myself from my imminent demise I decided to spend the rest of my evening putting tape up on my walls (with the hope of living long enough to paint). And then I saw the bat. Once again, only a few inches from my face. Seriously, bat. Save the surprises for birthdays and Christmas. Fortunately, I was armed with information this time, including the phone number for Animal Control. I, very calmly, called the number, talked to the dispatcher, and was told that the officer would get back to me. Twenty minutes later two police men showed up on my doorstep. Welcome to Small Town USA. I can only imagine the frenzy that came over the police department when that call came through; "10-96. 10-96. Crazy lady with a bat. I repeat, crazy lady with a bat. The mammal, not the wooden club. Closest unit please respond." Still operating under the assumption that the officers would have valuable information regarding my likelihood of contracting rabies, I let them inside and showed them upstairs to the bat's lair. One of the officers then proceeded to wrap the bat in a towel and release it outside. Thank you, civil servant of Bath. I totally could have done that (in theory... if I had very thick gloves... and some form of reach-rod... and a stiff drink).
My bat saga ended today with a call to the CDC. I learned that, assuming I would wake up to someone pinching me with tweezers, I was likely not exposed to bat saliva and do not need to begin rabies vaccination. With this, in addition to the knowledge that only 0.5% of tested bats are positive for rabies, I have stopped analyzing my symptom progression hourly.
This is the part where I should relate this story to yoga. But, in actuality, it has nothing to do with yoga. I just thought you all might enjoy the epic story of the (nearly) rabid ginger.
Happy August!
Judith Hanson Lasater has been teaching an annual yoga retreat at Feathered Pipe Ranch, in Helena, Montana, for 28 years. When she learned that one of her students was collecting Lasater’s thoughts — which she called “Judith’s aphorisms” — Lasater decided to collect them in this book. Featuring one thought for each day of the year, along with a suggested practice, these brief, powerful insights reflect the author’s knowledge of classic yoga philosophy and years of experience. Humorous, inspiring, and surprisingly down-to-earth, they guide seekers both on and off the yoga mat. These aphorisms address love, asana, fear, trust, expectations, pranayama, suffering, laughter, presence, the Yoga Sutra, and much more. They emphasize the experience of being present to one's self and to life’s ups and downs — day by day, breath by breath, moment by moment. A Year of Living Your Yoga is a gentle invitation to readers to know themselves on a deeper level.
