Meditation and yoga have become part of my everyday life, Now, even when I don’t practice, I meet my day with an open and inquiring mind, and my practice has become my way of being and seeing now.
The willow tree has been one of many symbols in my life in life. As a child I liked to hang around the tree in my grandmother’s garden. In Japanese traditions the willow is a symbol for humility and strength, which bends but stands even after big storms.
Children are naturally open, which makes them available to receive and contain the the power of Nature – without cognizing or consciously harnessing it. When we grow up, we lose this power – but we all know the longing for a deeper connection with ourselves and our surroundings. That’s when we begin to turn back time and make ourselves available once again to this flow of Nature.
For women it is essential to be able to communicate with, and open from, our bodies. As daughters, mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, when we welcome the force of Nature in ourselves, we live in the sacred space of our inner being more authentically. Gratefully. Fully.