At yoga last night, for any of the postures when I was low to the floor, I was able to see what looked liked flingsalt--large crystals of salt. Since we'd stay in the poses for several seconds, I would have time to look at the salt, and wonder about it. I wondered what it really was. I wondered where it had come from. I wondered if it was always there at the end of the day. I wondered if it would hurt me if it got in my eye. All kinds of things. But by the end of the class, my mind was pretty still, and I just accepted that I was one with whatever that salt was on the floor, and it was totally cool.

But then as I was packing up to go, curiosity got the best of me, and I cautiously reached out my pinky and touched a grain. IT WAS NOT SALT! It was gummy and cold. Suddenly, my mind's stillness was flooded with far more wonderings than before. It was stuck to the bottom of my yoga mat, too, so my wonderings were also filled with alarm.

Anyway, I wish I could end this story by saying "Well, the lab assured me it was just a silicate that commonly forms when yoga mats touch floors" or some such, but I really have no idea what it was. My yoga mat is taking a bath right now. I had been meaning to wash it anyway so it smelled less chemical, and more yogic. I'm going to spray it down with lavender honey milk, and its bath right now is the leftovers from my own mineral spirits one. But despite no clear explanation, at least things didn't end like a Star Trek episode (i.e. the entire crew of my ship didn't succumb to an alien disease that causes irratic and funny behavior).