If a tree falls in the woods...

Betwixt and between -- the Fall equinox. It's a time when day and night are equal lengths, an inconspicuous tipping point, signaling a shift. In the northern hemisphere, the world as we knew it -bedecked in it's summer effulgence - starts the process of LETTING GO.  Leaves fall. Plants wither. Naturally. Slowly. Burrowing toward hibernation.  

It was during this time of the year that the lovely Diane of Stillpoint yoga studio in KOP recited the poem 'SHE LET GO' while we basked in svasana. (Yoga teachers - you should try it! See the poem in separate post below.) The words struck a chord with me as if they had been hanging in the ether, ad infinitum, just waiting for the right conditions to be plucked. I was touched by the reminder that the transformation and healing we seek on our yoga mats so often just happens.  No struggle. No fanfare. No applause. No noise. At most there may be a silent internal nod. You've got this now. You are going to be ok. But mostly, after all of the turmoil, the shift isn't good and it isn't bad. It is what it is, and it is just that.  

So, yea. 

If a tree falls in the woods and
no one is there to hear it,
you bet it makes a sound. 

And we count on it.
We rely on the good stuff that happens in this place, betwixt and between, that we cannot see or hear.  

In India, they performed rituals where they overtly put our prayers into the ether (apeksha.) I loved that they were so direct and confident in their approach.  "But of course", their actions relayed to us without question, "this is just how it all works."  A matter of fact. When we send our thoughts into the cosmos, it changes things.

While we tend to be more subtle and skeptical on our yoga mats, we also go to that place beyond sight and sound often.  We go to that place to express our well wishes, anger, apologies, regrets, or love that will not (or no longer can) be voiced face to face, perhaps because we are too wounded, too considerate, too proud, too infatuated, or too afraid. And we count on our silent thoughts being heard by the intended recipient.  

We go to that in-between-place with our silent attempts at believing in love, despite having our hearts shattered, or at regaining our confidence, despite being defeated. And we count on that place for our renewal.  

We go to that place in the middle to LET GO of the stifling debris swirling within us -- our anxieties, our confusion, the judgements, the 'right' reasons, or those memories that hold us back.  And we count on that place to shuffle things along.  

We go to that place in the seam where the pedestrian unsung champion within us, who is incessantly working to help us evolve, both triumphs and misses the mark time and again.  Oddly, it is hard, isn't it?  Often easier to excel at academics, sports or our professions than to assimilate all the things that break us open.  

So thank you Stillpoint yoga, for skillfully taking us to that place betwixt and between, where on one rather ordinary Fall evening, while no one in class heard a thing... SHE LET GO, setting into motion a few raucous shockwaves that surely rippled through the ether. 

Namaste