Reflections From The Roots

Heavy rains have brought an amazing array of mushrooms to the northern forests. They have been catching my attention so much, I decided to take some of their pictures to share. Noticing the small transformations that occur day to day in the fields and forests is an endless source of inspiration to me.Our own experience is reflected back the more we slow down and observe these subtle, and sometimes obvious movements through seasonal cycles.

Mushrooms are actually the fruiting bodies of vast networks of underground webs of mycelium. Research in the Pacific Northwest has shown that these networks link trees of different ages and species to one another, forming an underground freeway for the transfer of nutrients. The older the tree, the more connections, the more extensive the exchange.

Over the years on this meandering path of truth and beauty I have been walking, I have accumulated the threads of many teachings. Sometimes they conspire in the depths to produce an offering that opens to spread outward. As I have been teaching yoga for several years, I always take into account the feedback I receive from students and teachers, but I am more established in my own practice, and more deeply honor the ideas that move through me. Like writing a blog post about mushrooms, for instance.

I am often asked what type of yoga I teach, and the answer is usually a class description: moderate hatha yoga with a meditative and breath component. But as I recently heard Judith Hanson Lasater, one of the first independent yoga teachers and pioneer of restorative yoga say, "There are as many types of yoga as there are yoga teachers." It is a precarious balance in any tradition to keep the wisdom alive amidst shifting cultures. When she began teaching in the 1970's, yoga was mostly taught in connection with religious orders. Hatha yoga is simply the postures, ancient shapes of mysterious origin. Yoga has traveled from an ancient culture on the other side of the planet into our lives. We are figuring out how this wisdom translates to trauma survivors, pregnant women, children, parents, elders, and social activism in our time.

I have studied with several teachers, listened to lectures, and read many books. Always reluctant to label or, as is now the trend to trademark and lock into someone's ego driven system. There were aspects I took away from each of them into me through those unseen channels that carry our breadth of experience and refined wisdom. There will be no definitive answers, but the tradition will evolve through the exchange.