Yogi Baby, barefoot, strolls slowly and quietly across a sunlit, grassy field. She pauses, lifts her arms, and looks up at the sky, taking in a big breath. The warm glow of the sun envelopes her with a rosy aura, and she feels peace all around. Feeling the earth beneath her and the grass tickling her ankles, she plants her feet firmly and bends one knee up into Tree Pose.
Rooted in this way, connected to Mother Earth, YB focuses her gaze at a wide, tall tree nearby.
“How old are you?” she asks the tree.
“Are you 80 years old? 100 maybe? I do wonder, what have you seen over all those years?”
She considers the possible number of years, thinking how its branches have extended outward, little by little over time, and its roots have deepened more and more into the soil; each year more solid and firm; each year gaining experience and wisdom.
YB moves to explore Vrksasana standing on her other limb.
“Has my life of only ten years been anything like yours?” she wonders.
“As I’ve become older, have I become wiser, too?”
Aware that the moon’s cycle is about to begin once again with the New Moon due to arrive tomorrow, Yogi Baby is conscious of her inner desire for renewal, as well. She sits down to mentally clear her slate and unplug. Deciding to stay for more than a few moments, she takes an easy, cross-legged seat in the grass and begins to reflect about her life and the days of the previous cycle.
Cradling one foot in her hands, she begins to massage the center of her sole below the ball of her foot, just down from her middle toe.
“Ahh,” she says. “A bit of kindness for myself.”
This spot on the bottom of her foot, she has recently learned, is an acupressure point known as K1, and it is at this point where Earth Qi and electrons are drawn in; our human point of connection to the electromagnetic field of our planet. Stimulating this point, YB knows, will promote a flow of energy along her Kidney Meridian to dispel fear and to activate healing all along that channel.
YB moves her hands to massage the sole of her other foot.
“And, having cultivated kindness within,” she continues, “I have an abundance of compassion to give out.”
Yogi Baby stretches one leg straight, keeping the other bent in where it is. She reaches up tall with her arms and then folds forward over the long leg into Half Butterfly Pose. YB now notices how this seated pose is similar to the standing Tree Pose. But, in this more yin shape, she is closer to the earth, grounded, safe, and now, even fearless.
She inhales, and on her long exhale, she sighs out the seed sound of the first chakra, “Laaammmm…”
After a few breaths, YB switches her legs to explore Half Butterfly on the other side. As she reflects, relaxing into the pose, she realizes that with each new experience – the prefered ones for sure, but maybe, especially the non-prefered – she’s had in the last few weeks, the wiser she has become. She has learned something from each unusual – and each ordinary – experience, and in this way, is not unlike this big, old, wise tree.
“We both receive energy from the earth,” she relates to the tree. “And, we both enjoy the reciprocal nature of relationships; mine are just more above ground, while yours include mysterious connections with other plants, animals, and fungi underground.
YB breathes in, and as she lets her breath out, she sighs the mantra, “I am grounded.”
Today, with the New Moon just ahead, Yogi Baby reflects upon her practice of Ahimsa – non-violence. For as YB tends to self-compassion which fuels the kindness she directs towards others, she creates a space of self-protection and a sense of safety to try and to learn new things, piggybacking on all that she has experienced in the weeks that have passed.
Cycles repeat. Yes. But, each cycle is not the same as the last. Is it?
“I am not on a wheel like a hamster!” YB laughs out loud.
“I am on an looping Slinky of spiritual growth and change which moves me higher with each cycle! And, just as the trees wisely grow towards the heavens and the universe above, while firmly planted here, I too am safely grounded and growing in wisdom and love in all of my relationships!”
Hugging her knees in close and giving her legs a squeeze, YB is peacefully aware of Mother Earth and her firm foundation. She wriggles her toes into the grassy soil feeling at home within herself.