Shiva energy

This morning I was at the Art Gallery selling tickets to the Goddess exhibition, and although the tills were pretty quiet, there was full-on commotion the whole morning. It was probably compounded by the position of the desk for this show, right under the steps and on the way to the loos, so you see everyone who comes past, for whatever reason.

There was the usual huge busload of tourists who tried to march past the till and into the door, a few times I had to suspend serving the person in front of me to go over and stick a firm arm out and say, "Excuse me!"

There were also lots of young, loud, shabbily dressed people, but none of them were buying tickets. One group in particular was quite boisterous and kept coming up and down the stairs. Three very young lads, probably high school or early Uni, all sort of tall and fit and handsome, but just going off with exuberance. In the end they posed for a group photo under the Goddess sign, saying, "Good times, good times," and said some funny and friendly things to us, but then bounded up the stairs and were off. And I worked it out then - Homebake. A big all-day rock festival, featuring all Australian artists, was happening just across the road in the Domain, and people were coming in to use the loo. That's what brought these young art lovers inside. And their high spirits were probably not the uplifting quality of the works around them, they were probably E'd out of their minds. Harmless, though. But just in case they weren't, we noticed cops going back and forth to the loo all morning as well.

And then, a bit later when I was on the desk by myself, there was all sorts of commotion in the staircase above me. Girls this time. I heard them say, "Yes, you've got it, that's beautiful," and "Release that shiva energy!" A man stopped at the bottom of the stairs and was looking up in amazement, and said, "I just can't believe you can do it." I didn't go up to look because I wanted to guard my tills, but eventually the ladies came down and I saw what was happening. They were three American tourists - really, really American - who were doing yoga poses in front of the signs and taking pictures. The sign in the stairwell had a poem about shiva energy. The one down by us said "Goddess" in big gold letters, so they got that one as well. One woman did a pose where you grab your foot behind you and bring it up equal with your head. Then two of them did handstands (or sort of forearm stands) and touched their feet together above their heads - I had to help spot for that one because they couldn't get their feet to touch. Finally the whole group of three did standing poses and I took some photos. To get the positions just right, one would yell out to the other, "Melt your heart! Melt your heart!" the exact same way that Jane Fonda used to yell out "Feel the burn!" in her aerobics tapes. It was a huge commotion - shoes kicked off in the corner, camera flash going madly, bodies upside down and contorting and tipping everywhere. But they were having such a great time, capturing the memory of their trip, and it was all so much in the spirit of the show that everyone just smiled indulgently and let them go ahead.

So there you go. Live in high spirits (but go easy on the E's). Melt your heart! And release the shiva energy.