Seven Years To Hold Still
Eventually the angle made sense, the floor stayed below me, and I could do it again.
In November 2025 I managed to stabilize my elbow lever. I could enter the position, hold it and repeat it. The photograph was no longer one lucky collision with balance.
The image reached back to three sessions at Evergreen Yoga Studios in Athens. Panos's practice had made strength and control look almost obvious. Meanwhile, twenty minutes of yoga had completely dismantled me. Something about that contrast stayed in my head.
The seven years contained work, startups, study, parenthood and every other demand that thought it deserved the same hour. Progress arrived in smaller pieces: wrist strength, shoulder control, where to place the elbows, how to shift weight, how to fall and try again.
An elbow lever has no interest in the story. The angles work and the body stays up, or the floor provides immediate peer review.
By then I no longer knew whether it had been the decoration at Evergreen, Panos's example, or the shock of discovering my condition. Something had clicked in Athens and survived.
Seven years is a long time to carry one decision. The lever only had to hold for a few seconds.