We bought our house 27 years ago, condemned, infested with critters, no power or working plumbing or heating. The yard…what yard? Hay field was the back yard, along with brush and briars and hundreds of annoying locust tree sprouts. The house was 200+ years old and the yard, while likely once lovely, was nonexistent. I will save the discussion about the condition of the house for another day. While there were no plantings, my passion for having flowering plants and gardens has resulted in multiple gardens on our 7.4 acres property that constantly need to be weeded (especially now that our yoga practice is outdoors).
I have determined that weeding can be approached two ways, the first is as a chore (well technically weeding is always a chore but it is more in how you approach it). The chore can be dreaded, and I have found that when you try to spend a whole day or even half a day doing it, the heat, along with the strain on your back, can exacerbate the negative connotations. The second approach is as a meditative experience, approached with appropriate boundaries. For me, part of making weeding enjoyable is in the set up. Take the time to have lots of water nearby. Wear cool, comfortable clothes, get all the tools you need ahead of time and do not forget the knee pad! Most importantly, as I begin, I set a time limit or a one bed goal. In the past I would get obsessed and end hours later than intended, stooped over and in pain, and miserable.
Once I get going, I tend to get into a zone. I work my digger into the bed pulling up the weeds that are dug in deep. I trim away the dead leaves and sometimes use my shovel to dig up large pieces of perennials that get so large they dwarf their neighbors. I rarely look up when I get into the gardening zone, the lawn mowers, trimmers, dogs and other noises become a quiet background along with bird song and the sound of the breeze in the leaves. I am often startled to find how much time goes by and I negotiate with myself for a bit longer, willing to shirk off on something else on my list. This version of weeding is truly a meditation. I end within a reasonable time and find myself feeling relaxed and feeling fulfilled by the very visible accomplishment often truly surprised by how much time has passed in a true meditative state.
Why do I enjoy weeding so much? The task while never complete (they always grow back), provides a sense of accomplishment when viewing the neatened bed. The time in the gardens is quiet, meditative and soothes the mind. There are occasions when a particularly embedded weed gives me reason to curse, but in general this is a relaxing experience for me.
Pulling weeds is not unlike our yoga practice, it is never done but very satisfying. We practice yoga regularly, understanding it will always be that a practice, not a “completion”, and that is the beauty of it. Like the weeds, some parts of yoga can frustrate us (trying to “master” a certain pose, feeling unbalanced, not feeling like we can find our breath); also, like the weeds our practice will always be there for us and will also provide a sense growth and satisfaction.
In the yoga sutra 1.14, Patanjali talks about our practice becoming “firmly established when it has been cultivated uninterruptedly and with devotion over a long period of time”. Again, doing our practice over and over is so much like gardening, it gets done over and over (note the “cultivation” reference). If we take the analogy one step further, we can liken the meditative process of weeding the gardens to cleaning out or cultivating our mind. After meditation we often experience profound calmness and clarity, our mind is “weeded” of clutter. Recalling the simplest of all Sutras, 1.2, “The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff” (weeding the mind) “is Yoga”.
This weeding meditation could totally resonate with others who find the properties of knitting, cooking, painting (fill in the blank) as their meditative practice. So, I am suggesting this week we grab our tools of choice and find our own active meditation. This too is yoga.
Our Practice - Flowering Lotus (Vikasita Kamalasana):
In the spirit of gardening, this week we will practice flowering lotus. This pose is a hip and chest (heart)opener, arm and core strengthener, stretches the inner thighs, gluetes and hamstrings while promoting balance and coordination.
Come to Baddha Konasana (bound angle pose), bending knees and bringing soles of your feet together. Sit with tall spine with your crown to the sky.
Inhaling, engage your core and lift your legs rocking back on your sitting bones and balancing.
Weave your arms under your legs, lifting your chest squeezing shoulder blades and work on keeping spine straight.
Gaze upward (if it feels ok in your neck); imagine you are a blossoming flower.🌷🌸
Meditation on Weeding (The Garden and the Mind)
This Marge Piercy poem features a woman in her garden but is truly a poem about living. I hope it resonates with you as it did with me.
The Seven of Pentacles – Marge Piercy
Under a sky the color of pea soup
she is looking at her work growing away there
actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans
as things grow in the real world, slowly enough.
If you tend them properly, if you mulch, if you water,
if you provide birds that eat insects a home and winter food,
if the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars,
if the praying mantis comes and the ladybugs and the bees,
then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock.
Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot tell always by looking what is happening.
More than half the tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.
Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.
Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.
Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden.
Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar.
Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.
Live a life you can endure: Make love that is loving.
Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in,
a thicket and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us
interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.
Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen:
reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in.
This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,
for every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting,
after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.
This short quote from William Wordsworth dovetails so well with our thoughts about gardening, yoga and working on clearing our mind, growing our best selves supported by our yoga practice.
William Wordsworth said, “Our mind is a garden; your thoughts are the seeds. The harvest will bring either flowers or weeds.”
Nurturing with Food – Tomato and Watermelon Salad
My brother and I were in NY and NJ recently visiting taking my mom to see my Tia Lupita and Uncle John (my 91 mom’s younger brother). They took us to dinner at a beautiful restaurant that had this salad on the menu. When we got home I did my best to replicate it, adding the addition of the arugula bed the third time I made it (although the picture in the recipe is an earlier version without! It is easy to make and super refreshing!
See you on the mat!
Namaste,
Julia Anne
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