2020, Term 1 classes with me at Yoga from the Heart are inspired by trees as I prepare for running 22km at the Tarkine raising much needed funds and awareness toward saving this precious temperate rain forest.

Tabonuco trees in the tropics literally support one another through storms. They interweave their roots to increase their strength as they grow on exposed ridges. Their interwoven roots also create a network to share nutrients.

Many plants grow taproots, main roots extending straight down, affording stability and access to deeper water sources and nourishment. Many things in the world right now feel as though they are calling on me to extend my taproot down deeply, one of my taproots is practice … to access that deeper connection.

The roots of trees send information to one another, alerts of threat. When an old douglas fir tree is dying from old age it sends its nutrients out from the roots to other trees … it becomes what the book ‘Overstory’ calls a ‘giving tree’.

How might we all find our own deep tap roots and strengthen them so we might become giving trees, supporting one another through storms, sharing nourishment, and receiving that great gift in return.

 

THRESHOLD

Be taught now, among the trees and rocks,
how the discarded is woven into shelter,
learn the way things hidden and unspoken
slowly proclaim their voice in the world.
Find that far inward symmetry
to all outward appearances, apprentice
yourself to yourself, begin to welcome back
all you sent away, be a new annunciation,
find the words you always wanted to say
and stand at the door of the day
and be hospitable, even to the stranger in you.

…. David Whyte