June 2023: The Natural World
Welcome to June, and for those of you with me in the Midwest, a long-awaited stretch of good weather!
When I’m not at the studio, you’ll probably catch me riding my bike somewhere - bike adventures are my favorite thing about warm weather times. These early days of summer seem like the extra good moments to be outside and immerse in the natural world, because the bugs haven’t gotten bad yet, and it’s still fairly temperate - which is one reason why I chose the theme of the natural world for June.
When I talk about the natural world, I mostly mean plants and animals that you’ll encounter when you take yourself outside. And you don’t even have to be in the remote wilderness to experience it. As you already know, I love a good long neighborhood walk, and when I can convince my daughter to come along, we have a lot of fun foraging and identifying flora that we encounter. Did you know day lilies are edible, and taste a little like peas? But regular lilies are NOT edible, just so ya know. This is actually a picture of poppies, my favorite. I think the buds look like little Audrey Two’s, getting ready to say “Feed me.”
My daughter and I actually went further afield and were able to hike three National Parks a few weeks ago! We trekked through Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon National Parks, along with 25 or so other fourth and fifth graders from my daughter’s amazing Milwaukee Public School, Golda Meir. I’ve never been to that part of the United States, and the topography of mountains, canyons, and vast open spaces, without any large body of water was incredibly different to me - I was actually moved to tears as we drove into Zion and I caught a glimpse of the amazing rock formations. Overwhelming in the best way. If you’re wondering if a bunch of late elementary school kids are up to the challenge of a fair amount of hiking, the answer is YES! They did amazingly well.
But one of the most special experiences for me was walking the trails, holding my daughter’s hand. She just turned ten, and I know that pre-teen and teen years are going to shift some things about our relationship; change or die, as they say. I loved that, as we connected our feet to the ground and delighted over the new-to-our-eyes sights of cacti and lizards, and looked out over the incredibly quirky hoodoos of Bryce, her inclination was to offer up this gesture of connection. It was as if she was silently asking me to experience it all *with* her - the good old Rilke idea of “you come, too.”
And that idea just kept sitting with me as I mulled over ideas for the June studio theme. I’ve often marveled at just how many asanas in yoga are pulled from plants and animals. The Tantric age of yoga, to me, was an era of experimentation, where yogis tried to see how their bodies could be a conduit of liberation, connection, and one-ness.
It’s a little over-explained at this point, but the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means yoked. This can be interpreted in lots of ways, but one way I like to imagine it, especially through the Tantric lens of liberation through being a human on earth, is that we’re seeking communion and one-ness with everything around us - including the natural world.
That feeling of one-ness, or connection, or empathy - the ability to understand and perhaps experience the feelings of another person - is one that has actually continued to develop in human brains over the course of history, and I believe that an increased capacity for empathy is one of the great gifts of a continuing yoga practice. But I actually believe that developing empathy is best experienced and developed in shared practice, whether it’s an asana practice or group meditation, partially due to something amazing called mirror neurons. Our brains (and not just human brains) are wired to mimic and respond to mimicry - we have an instinctive urge to mimic the gestures or facial expressions, speaking cadences, and ways of moving of people that we’re in some sort of interaction, dialogue or community with. This, in turn, helps us to experience empathy, and also can feel calming. My anecdotal experience leading and participating in shared group movement is that part of what’s magical about it is the feeling of moving, together, with a bunch of other humans.
So when those Tantric yogis went out into the world and started to create asanas that mimicked the natural world around them - I interpret that as an expression or longing to connect, or re-connect to the natural world, and to learn from plant and animal ways. John O’Donohue has a poem/prayer about this exact idea, “To Learn From Animal Being,” which I’ll leave you with. I hope we can find ways to connect and channel all the beauty of the natural world that surrounds us in these warmer days. Even in an urban setting like Milwaukee, there are magical mystical nature experiences to be unlocked at every turn. Get out there and mirror it!
To Learn From Animal Being
by John O'Donohue
Nearer to the earth's heart,
Deeper within its silence:
Animals know this world
In a way we never will.
We who are ever
Distanced and distracted
By the parade of bright
Windows thought opens:
Their seamless presence
Is not fractured thus.
Stranded between time
Gone and time emerging,
We manage seldom
To be where we are:
Whereas they are always
Looking out from
The here and now.
May we learn to return
And rest in the beauty
Of animal being,
Learn to lean low,
Leave our locked minds,
And with freed senses
Feel the earth
Breathing with us.
May we enter
Into lightness of spirit,
And slip frequently into
The feel of the wild.
Let the clear silence
Of our animal being
Cleanse our hearts
Of corrosive words.
May we learn to walk
Upon the earth
With all their confidence
And clear-eyed stillness
So that our minds
Might be baptized
In the name of the wind
And the light and the rain.
~ John O'Donohue
From: To Bless the Space Between Us
What I’m Reading
I found out that I’m already taking what are referred to as “Awe Walks,” in this book by Dacher Keltner. Awe Walks are outdoor perambulations where we focus on really taking in the sights, sounds, and other sensory cues that exist around us, in more of a ritualistic fashion. Especially in the summer time, this is one of my favorite things to do - there is so much to delight the senses as I walk through the streets and take in city nature. What’s super cool is that research shows that cultivating a sense of Awe has tangible health benefits - I was so inspired by a mention of this book in a New York Times newsletter, I ordered it and am diving in now! Maybe you, too?
