one pair of hands , one pair of feet

Last Thursday I bought a yoga mat.
I was having lunch with friends at Paris Plage, and F asked me to go to decatho with her. I rode on the back of her scooter- the best possible view-going over pont neuf, up through the left bank and over to the 13th. Afterwards we went to her place and drank orange juice and had some moulleux de chocolat. We took a p'tit sieste in the sun. On my way out she she gave me her basil plant.
I walked home with my basil plant and my yoga mat. The sun was strong and tiring, and the day felt slow and complete.
Before leaving that day I saw a man in the garden next to mine (separated my only a fence). He had a dog and wore a winter coat. I wondered about him as I walked, but mostly felt the weight of the things I was holding.
Coming back into my apartment, I set down the plant, I unrolled the mat. It was brighter inside then when I had left. Why was the curtain open in the bedroom? Standing at my doorway I saw broken glass all over my clothes. The glass door was shattered, and a shovel lay on my pile of shoes and papers.
When the cops came, I tried to tell them that le type clochard may have done it . The just asked me if it was always such a bourdel in here. X and I looked at eachother and laughed- well yes it usually was.
Sitting the next day in the apartment I felt deeply shaken. Glass on my clothes. A shovel on my things. A hole in my room. Nothing was taken, but I realised I lived in a little glass box. My neck ached. My leg shook. I could not calm down. I opened the closet and the red , shiny yoga mat slumped forward and slid out onto the floor.
Unrolling it again, I tried to remember how my old swami used to have us calm down, how to meditate. One of the first excercises I remember had to do with hands and feet. He said you only have one pair of each, and they are only yours. They carry you through life and open all the doors for you. Sitting down on the mat I looked at my hands. I touched my feet and rubbed my thumb into my instep. I pressed my palm against my heel. I sat up straight and remembered to think about the air going in my nose and out of my mouth. After some time the hole in my apartment drifted away.