Karin

 I think about Karin often. I had read a blog post from Rishikesh when Karin first started teaching in Dallas and I was searching for anything on her I could find since I thought she was incredible. The blog post was written by a student who wrote like she had been caged in the room with a tigress, I just started laughing thinking ‘is this the same Karin O’Bannon’. Then I went to LA for her memorial and several students mentioned fear of her.  

 In one class she said to turn the foot in standing poses and have the front foot bisected by the mat, have it exactly in the center of the heel and foot, she was going to be very picky about this. I went back to my mat thinking oh yes I so got this and then placed my foot where the side of my foot was on the edge of the mat, the way its normally taught and I am still thinking 'oh yessiree I am doing this so right'. So she goes mat to mat making adjustments and she gets to me and I look down and see her foot move my foot to where the mat edge goes through the middle of my foot and I  re-hear her words and I then start shaking with laughter, oh my goodness…how can you not love yoga, is it really an option, I think not…holding a mirror up and saying do you see what the body does when challenged do you see the mind and what it does here even to the point of do you see listening, at what levels words penetrate… her words had gone in my ear and stopped they had not gone any further they certainly did not penetrate the awareness of the body…wild…I look up and she is smiling saying  with her eyes yes I know what you did and I know what you now realize and yes it is wild.

  But there was this one time…in one class there were only three students, LeeAnn (a teacher), me and a student I hadn’t ever seen before. Karin says we would do the invocation in call and response so it starts, LeeAnn is chanting like a normal person but the new student isn’t chanting and I am thinking ruh roh and start getting quieter, with every line I am trying to hide my voice behind Leeann like maybe down the street would be good so by the end my mouth was moving but not a lot of sound was occurring. When I raise my head…whoa….she is glaring at me saying ‘you chant the invocation like you are afraid someone might hear you’ I was thinking ‘she is really angry with me’. So now every time the chanting starts and I think its not very loud and start reaching for my personal volume control I see Karin glaring at me saying ‘don’t even think about it’ and my mental hand drops away from the knob as she leans down and whispers in my ear ’louder’