Sweet and simple yoga

Things rarely work out as you imagined.

Leaf held the side of the boat as Magnolia walked onto the beach and deposited them on the sand 

She was beaming.

Leaf was over excited; he had never been so happy to see land. He dropped and sat on the sand. It was warm and oh, so comforting. He lay down and did a few sand angels: so grateful for the opportunity to be back on land. 

He looked up at Magnolia. “Have you made sand angels?” he asked. She was grinning “no, never. Let me try”. She lay down beside him. He doubted it would work with the long spine of fins but as she lay back her fins bent to the side and the smaller ones sank into the sand. She lay there for a moment. “The sand is so warm. There are times during the dark long winter nights I crave this kind of warmth. I usually have to swim to Hawaii to feel any warmth so this is a good back up plan. Although I wonder how warm it will in the winter?” She pondered that thought. Leaf frowned at the idea of damp cold winters. “I take baths in the winter to warm up. I guess that’s my equivalent to the Hawaiian volcanic waters.” She moved her legs like Leaf had and stood up. “My very first sand angel!” She looked at Leaf who was smiling. It was amazing to think that at this time yesterday he thought she might eat him. How different things can seem, he thought to himself. 

“Right, let’s get started” he said looking at Magnolia. She looked at him quizzically. “You know we can eat first, aren’t you hungry?” She leaned over and knocked a few coconuts to the sand, took them in her mouth and gently cracked them in such as way that the water remained inside. You’ll feel better after a few of these” she said as she presented them from her open mouth. He took the first one and pried it open. All the liquid leaked over his hands and into the sand. “Darn” he said looking very forlorn. “I still have this one” she said, and she leaned down again and opened her mouth presenting the other cracked coconut. He took the second coconut, raised his hands above his head while opening the nut. He tilted his head and focused on navigating the liquid into his mouth. He coughed and chocked, but mostly got all the coconut water into his mouth. He grinned. “Thank you” he said to Magnolia who was looking at other trees for more nuts. She strolled over to one, nudged the coconuts a little and watched them drop. “I like to have a few of these every day, they keep my skin glowing” she said with an ironic tone, and grinned at Leaf. He thought nothing of it and took another cracked coconut from her mouth and drained it, then pried it open. What moist flesh inside, but how to get it out? He thought to himself. He looked around for a stick and caught sight on one floating in the water. A well washed stick, he thought to himself. He poked the flesh with the stick and extracted a few tiny pieces, tried with his opposite hand and then gave up. Magnolia smiled but said nothing. She made a cracking sounds with the coconut she had in her mouth and presented it to Leaf. “You are amazing” he said, as he took the coconut that had been cracked on all sides. Eating the flesh off each piece was so much easier than using the stick.

They sat in silence while Leaf ate and Magnolia watched the sea. The quiet lull of the waves hypnotise them. Then a bird swooped in: Roger had arrived. “How’s the yoga going?” He asked. Magnolia smiled and said “we’ve not started yet, Leaf needed food.” “Right, you were in that boat for a few days before I arrived weren’t you?” Leaf was busy chewing but paused and contemplated. “I really can’t recall how long I was in that boat. I don’t even remember how I got in the boat.” He paused again then gathered the coconut shells and stood up. “Let’s focus on yoga” he said as he walked towards the palm tree and placed the shells underneath it. 

“Roge, do you want to join?” Roge nodded. “While the sand is better than the hull of the boat, its still not level or firm” he said as he pondered a solution. “I can fix that” Magnolia said as she dragged her tail back and forth and up and down beating the beach and levelling the sand.  “Ok, let’s start.” Leaf announced. They both looked at Leaf, smiled and followed along.