I first heard about Jennifer Haigh’s novel in a book review magazine I subscribe to.  The Condition introduces us to the McKotch family: Workaholic science obsessed father Frank, weirdly prudish and “proper” wife Paulette, distant, private Billy, runaway, haphazard Scotty, and finally Gwen, their middle child.

At the beginning of the novel we discover that something is not quite right with Gwen.  When the McKotches discovery she has Turner Syndrome — a condition that means she will never go through puberty and will end up a woman stuck in a girl’s body — it seems to be the end of their family.

The rest of the novel takes us through the adult years of the children, and the older years of Frank and Paulette.  We watch them all struggle with various aspects of their lives, keeping their hurts from each other while at the same time managing to heap more on each other as well.

Surprisingly little is said about Gwen’s Turner Syndrome beyond the insecurities and social issues it causes her.  She struggles to fit in and find her place in a world that is not set up for her either physically or emotionally.  I can relate to that.

But ultimately, that can be said for all of the McKotches, none of them feeling quite comfortable in their own skin.

Haigh write a wonderful story about a very compelling, yet very normal, family.  The Condition was a pleasure to read.

So, quite a few people I know have taken up yoga in recent months.  My friend D, plus my sister and now my niece.  Once D started taking it I thought about trying a class at the same yoga centre he goes to — Rama Lotus.  They offer a lot of different types of yoga and you can do classes on a drop in basis.  But then I thought that that might be too much.  I could just picture all the hard core yoga types in their louloulemon clothing, and then . . . me.

So, on a whim I decided to check my local community centre, and sure enough they offered a Yoga I — Basics class.  So I signed up.  Tonight was my first class.

It was good.  Hard, but good.  Probably a bit harder on me than the others, given my Cerebral Palsy.  I didn’t mention it to the instructor — I wanted to see how it would be for me if I could just try it like everyone else first.  There were a few poses where he tried to help me get into better form, like the downward dog when he tried to get me to straighten my arms more but they just wouldn’t.  Because, well, they don’t always go perfectly straight, no matter how hard I try.  And I couldn’t do the tree pose on my own.  I needed to hold onto the wall.  But you know what, that’s okay.

Because even though it was hard, even though I didn’t do it as well as everyone else, at least I did it.

I’m looking forward to next week.