Roots & Wings

A couple weeks ago I was in a yoga class and, in the midst of triangle pose, the idea of grounding to fly popped into my head—so I tucked it away to talk about another day.

Then, two days ago, same yoga class different day, the teacher talked about rooting to rise—how solidly planting your feet into the ground, pushing them even, lifts your entire body and gives you a sense of levity.

Ground to fly, root to rise, strengthen to soften.

So this week’s Sunday reflection is about the blessed polarity of roots and wings.

Like most things, levity through vigor is a practice, and all too often you don’t realize how much those roots steady you until you’re in the midst of a storm.

It may be a storm of rainbows, or it might be a Cat 5 hurricane flinging sushi knives at your head, but whatever circumstances are blowing you around, it’s the roots we’ve developed which allow us to maintain a lightness of being.

Some months are full without having even begun. That’s May for me, and last week I found myself feeling pinched by the prospect of it, which quickly leads me into overwhelm, and that’s not a place I like to spend my time.

As a wise woman pointed out to me, May is going to happen whether I choose to spend it feeling overwhelmed or not.

The things I’ve got scheduled (and likely more) are going to come and go, and I can choose to be bogged down by the idea of them, or I can ground myself and rise.

These things, by the way, aren’t negative—they’re joyous things like vacations, holidays, writing and clients. Most of May is filled with beautiful, welcome things, which makes it even more confounding when you feel constricted by them, right?

I mean who gets overwhelmed by good stuff?

A lot of people, a lot of the time.

So how do you not get bogged down by what is surely on its way to you?

For me, it helps to see myself as a tree, solid, rooted, strong with laughing branches and dancing leaves that play in the wind without a thought.

The rooting comes from knowing what must be done, what will be done and what wants to be done. It comes from clarity.

The levity stems from that knowing and allowing myself the gift of flow. Fluidity and lightness work well together. Sometimes that fluidity looks like sending a proposal on a Sunday, or writing reflections later than anticipated, or sleeping a little less one day and a little more another. It’s decompartmentalizing the way I think life should look.

It helps to practice this polarity when life is not full, and so that on days or weeks or months that is is, you can remind yourself of these truths…

It is safe to relinquish my stiff structure of the ‘way things must be’. I know what must be done will be and what wants to be done will be too because I know that I can expand my capacity to experience all that this month (week/day) brings my way.

I have faith that all will get done in perfect timing.

I know it is especially important to be mindful of my choices, not in a restrictive way, but in an empowered way—choosing that which fuels me.

When you practice strength and suppleness you’ll know you can handle whatever comes with levity and brightness because you’ve built it within yourself.

There is space enough for it all, and, guess what, it will happen whether you’re resisting or not, and, I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have a joy-filled, stressless month than the opposite.

Ground to fly.

Push to float.

Strength to soar.

Life is a field of opposites and polarity; play with that.

Love and flying,