lost and found

I had a funny experience today at the evening yoga class I teach. I always play music when I teach and have an I-Pod with playlists on it that I use. My husband often teases me about how I spend more time preparing music for the class than preparing the actual yoga for the class, might be some truth to that. Anyway, I keep all my yoga stuff in the same bag that I cart back and forth from home to the studio. As I unpacked my bag today, no I-pod. I hadn't used it since class on Monday and couldn't figure out where the heck it could be. Went out to my car to see if it fell out of "THE BAG", no where to be seen. So, I sat with the thought for awhile of maybe someone stole it, maybe it fell out of the bag and out of my car...couldn't quite figure it out. I kept rechecking the bag to see if I'd missed it somehow. The bag is not that big and there isn't that much stuff in it. I think they call that INSANITY, when you keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. Ha! Reminds me of a time in college when my bike got stolen from outside my work and I kept going back in to the building and coming out again thinking maybe my bike would be there...it never was! Anyway, that is another story.
So, after succumbing to the idea that I would not have my music for class, I checked the CD player and there were some random CDs in there. I posed the question to the class, asking if they wanted that music or none...a wise student said "I think this is a great opportunity for us to use our imaginations." No music it was. As I started the class, it felt awkward, I'm used to having the music to fill the space of quiet. I eased in to it and eventually found my groove and found myself letting go of the I-pod and actually enjoying the change and the awareness the lack of music brought to my teaching. At the end of class, all the students are in savasana, corpse pose, and I was sitting trying to meditate. That dang I-pod kept coming in to my thoughts and I kept telling myself to just let it go. After about 5 minutes of this struggle with myself, I finally realized, it was okay to drop it. I did and then opened my eyes. My i-pod was sitting right in front of me, neatly tucked in to the prayer bowl I ring at the end of class, to signal savasana is over. A big smile crept across my face...it was right in front of me all along! In the end, I appreciated what not having music brought to the practice and the teaching for me, I think I might do it every once in a while, just to keep things fresh!