In thinking of my season of change this week, I have made certain steps to let go of things that are no longer working in my life.  I have tried to nurture and develop some of the things that seem to bring positive change to my life and that of my family right now.  It has been insightful and beneficial to our lives so far.  I began thinking about all of this while I planned my 4 Week Fall Yoga Series.  I wanted to create a class series that allowed time to think about growth.  To think about what things we need to shed in fall and plant seeds for growth in the new year.  I had the class structure, sequencing, asanas, meditations, etc picked and thought out pretty much.  But, as luck would have it, a couple of days before the series started, I found a painting at a store.  The painting was a beautiful deep, burnt red (very ‘fallish”) with a sketched person doing Vrksasana (Tree Pose).  When looking closer it had a BEAUTIFUL poem written artfully through the painting.  It was exactly what I wanted to teach to my students!  It is amazing how life provides exactly what you need when you are present, aware and ready to receive.  Here are the words that I will be meditating on, teaching, and living this fall:

I hug the line that holds me that otherwise breaks me into two.

I embrace the lighted core like the rind of an orange holds together parting segments.

The juice of life’s inner love drips down and melts me into subtle awareness.

My feet flex and fold into the ground below me to find the pulpy, soft and sweet.

I’m a planted seed of solidity.  In this boundary of a body.  Ever pulsing.

I pull inward to move outward.

Gathering from the ground.

Growing to the sun.

I strengthen shoot-legs downward.

I lengthen branch arms up.

I am rooting, rooting, rooting and rising back out.

-Eliza Lynn Tobin

Challenge:  This week read these words and then do tree pose two min on each side each day.  See what happens to your “balance”.  Let me know how it goes!!