First Baptist Church of Herndon

A Tree in the Wind

Linda Soller | Jan 09, 2023

In yoga a “Tree Pose” is a balance pose. Technically one leg is holding you upright. The other leg is touching it using your foot at some point along your weight bearing leg.  Meanwhile your arms can be in any number of places. It helps steady your pose if you look straight ahead at a single location, a focus point. Sometimes you stand more like a rock than a tree, but you can’t get smug and look around the room to see if others have noticed your secure steady tree pose. Looking around can send you crashing. It’s also common that one leg is strong and on the same day the other leg is wobbly. In my yoga class last week my teacher was watching us on zoom, we can’t really see each other. At one point she says, remember it’s okay if your tree is wobbly. Think of it as a tree in the wind. 

We can be our own hardest critics. 20 years ago, when I attended two classes a week and worked my way up the levels a tree in the wind would have been personally unacceptable. That day in class I truly appreciated her remarks. I am trying to get back into a more regular yoga practice, but let’s face it 20 years covers a lot of territory. As I stood there ever so lightly wobbling, I was disappointed. My right leg had no issues, why was the left leg being so wimpy? Perhaps the better question would have been why aren’t you happy you haven’t fallen on your face? When I should have been enjoying all I was doing correctly, I was being critical of myself. 

Life offers us many opportunities to succeed, even more when we work with others. Finding your successes is very often a balancing act. Each piece of the puzzle fitting together to hold strong. After class was over and there were no cameras, I tried my tree pose again. Right legged nailed it again. The left leg started wobbly, calmed briefly to be still and strong, then went wobbly again. Yes, a perfect tree in the wind. Namaste!

Be the love in the world  : )   Linda