Water Bottles
When I first started yoga — about 3 years ago, I fell in love instantly. I loved how I felt afterwards, the challenging poses,the bite size spirituality, and the joy of an expansive ohm. But slowly, it occurred to me that there was an undisclosed subculture to yoga. A culture very much aligned to eco-friendly greenness. It made sense — being mindful of our environment is a natural partnership for yoga, it embodies the very ideas of ahimsa, doing no harm. I quickly noticed that I was mindlessly consuming water bottles. I often bought a small bottle before a rigorous class, and always a very large bottle for hot yoga. I started feeling guilty about this practice, it really didn’t take much effort to switch to a bottle — I would just have to be less lazy about remembering to bring it. I noticed how everyone seemed to have a Sigg water bottle, it was clearly the brand of choice (at the time). And no wonder it’s so playfully cute compared to it’s then competitors (kleen kanteen).But at ~$25 it was pretty pricey, and my yoga was expensive enough — so I opted to just go thirsty or drink from the water fountain after class. Then I hit verifiable gold, a cute $10 water bottle that matched my Koi Mat. A red Koi Gaiam water bottle on sale at Barnes and Noble for $10. How could I not buy it?
For about 2 weeks I was the happiest matching yogini in class. My friends commented on the matching bottle, and I gushed, ” I know, I LOVE it“. Then I noticed a small smudge on the pattern, in a few days the smudge grew to other places — the pattern was cracking off. I was devastated. How could it be breaking already? I only take it from my apt to the studio, it doesn’t go through rough wear. But the pattern was coming undone, and in 4 weeks it wasn’t even recognizable as Koi. I gave up on it, I brought it to the office where it’s semi-retired.
I’ve searched for a new water bottle, and thought I hit another jackpot with Old Navy. Also hawking cute water bottles for a drop dead price of $7. This time from the printing I could tell this pattern wouldn’t be so easy to fade. And I was right, the pattern has remained 2+ years later. The problem now is the water has a strange metallic taste that no amount of cleaning tablets, or hot water, vinegar, and baking soda has been able to remove. So two years later, $15 poorer I’m considering going back to Sigg. I notice they sell only Sigg at Wholefoods — and being the sucker that I am for wholefoods I feel myself lured by their stamp of approval. Shall I splurge for it this weekend during our weekly grocery trip? I can already feel my husband casting his dubious another absolutely necessary yoga accessory? Sigh,
