root the energy down

spare the flower, prioritize the roots

The other day, my husband and I had the fortune and blessing to purchase three infant blueberry bushes from one of our very favorite blueberry farms, Russell’s. The green thumb and love for blueberries are very much a part of my genetic code; both my parents were intentional and invested in their garden year after year and always amazed me with their ability to grow goodness right from the ground. However, I am still very adolescent myself and am really excited to tend to and care for our very own blueberry bushes.

When picking up our baby blues, I found it so very interesting and insightful when Laura, Russell’s owner, stated that we should pick the flowers off the bushes so the energy of the plant can go down towards the root system and not up and out to the flourishing of the flowers. She said that it will take about five years for those baby blues to come into their berries, and any help we can share with these younglings for the next 5 years will profoundly impact their production of fruit for their remaining life…

She specifically said: “if you can spare the flowers, it’ll take better root,” and that has just been staying with me like much-needed wisdom and guidance for these times…

In life, we may not always be able to see the flowers or savor the fruit. In life, we may need to direct and prioritize our energy downward into the earth, the root systems, the needs of our body, the energy of survival in the here and now so we can have a better chance and cultivation for the next… before any of us can flourish freely, we gotta be held, we gotta be meeting our basic needs beyond survival and into full saturation. But, are we doing that?

I feel so much when I look out in the world and I see people who are moving and grinding to the pace of all that is not so holy, helpful, or healthy… I see faces filled with fatigue, fear, and frustration… I see the body rigid, sunken, and dim… I see the ways we have lost our way from the root system and the need and nourishment that can only come from the direction of down.

I also reflect on the tension experienced within me when I am not seeing the fruits of my own labors generate what my ego defines as success. Especially when contrasted against the way things used to be for me. I have to be gentle and firm with myself as I remember that I may not be seeing things shift and manifest outside of me fully right now - but, I do feel the growth as well as the ground supporting me and the new realizations and dreams awakening within me. The baby blueberry bushes are reminding me, even reflecting to me, that there is so much happening underneath the surface, and that’s such a beautiful and foundational place to put my energy, efforts, and patience within the process. Just because we can’t see “it” quite yet, or taste it quite yet, or even pick it and put it in our hands quite yet, doesn't mean it isn't happening…

My time to flourish and live freely and courageously in such a state of bliss, joy, glee, and even more ease is coming… in fact, it’s already here. And right now, the work is still bringing the energy downward, into my body, into my roots, into my rest, into my nourishment, just like the blueberries… allowing the energy to be managed down so when the time does come (which it will, it always does) to rise and flourish up and out, it and I will be ready with such integrity and excitement to show the world all our beauty, nourishment, and power. I feel that with my entire body - can you too??

I feel like these blueberry bushes are sharing with me (and you) such a valuable and timely lesson of letting go of the old-outdated-outward blueprint of production at the demise and detriment of our foundation… In our culture, I feel like we only know the berries, we only know the convenience of that fruit being ready and available to us at any given time. We know convenience, Yet, have we forgotten connection? Have we forgotten what is needed and necessary for that one berry to appear in our hand and tasted upon our tongues? Have we forgotten everything is a process? Or have we chosen not to remember that the outer is only as strong as the inner, and without ground, without something really holding us and anchoring us in, what can sustainably bloom? For maybe you have your berry now, but what about 5 years from now? 10 years from now? Even 100 years from now? I want there to still be berries, which means we are going to need to make sure we got the ground, care, and space for our roots.

I think about how we are living in such a time of horror, genocide, and apathy. I think of the Met Gala and how celebrities willingly paid thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for an evening of gratuitous glamour in their stunning and unrealistic and unserving costumes while thousands and thousands and thousands of lives were and still are in war zones and unsure of when the next bomb will drop, let alone some overpriced shoes at a gala ball…

Doesn't that feel like the energy going out? Doesn't that feel like dissonance and disconnection? During a time when we really need it to go down and in? Doesn't it feel like we are entertaining and distracting ourselves with things that really don't matter and do not aid in our becoming, yet we are losing sight of the hunger, hopelessness, and need to be returned to safety, stability, and ground… held and whole, Sacred, safe, and loved…

In yoga, there’s ethics, and without ethics, there is no yoga. One of the ethical branches of yoga is called the Yamas, and this is the way we treat others, which is also a direct reflection of how we treat ourselves. The 4th branch of the Yamas is called Bramacharya, and this is the practice of energy management. Bramacharya asks that we pay attention to where we are placing our attention, our energy, our efforts, our capital, our resources, and asks us if this is really what we want and intend…”Is this really serving me?” and is this really serving you? Us? All?

The baby blues are begging that we practice prioritizing our efforts down for now, so that the longevity of our lives and love will better flourish and benefit us all in our future - the continuum of every choice we make now impacts the flowers and fruits, the freedoms and fullness of many tomorrows.

It feels like everything we need to be doing in this now is caring for the inner world and being that is probably begging for rest, maybe even antsy for joy, longing for ground, hopeful for care… we are all worthy of these needs being met, abundantly and accessible… It feels like the time is now for letting go of societal and cultural illusions of beauty and productivity as our goal and returning to the earth, the mud, the process, the rooting to all our rise and growth.

My energy is going down and has been for quite a while - and the outer blossoms which we used to/ I used to be able to freely hold, share, and delight in with such glee have slowly diminished… decreased… even died… yet, never fully away and never fully forgotten…. from the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 and the realization 4 years ago that the structure we had known and seen and cultivated together, our lotus flower, no longer could hold us as it had before meant I had to let it wither… I had to let it sink... I had to let it go… and trust that when the time is ready the new will emerge again… and here I am today, witnessing the ways the world is whispering to me to continue that courageous journey in and down - into me - my needs, my comfort, my capacity, my joy, my resources - all of these choices and all of this action has kept me stable, kept me nourished, while also giving me the space needed to move beyond the clouds, clutch, and any idea that I have control - yet, I do have choice - and I choose to call all my vital power home into me - so, in turn and time, I'll really be able to serve - support - provide - out of me and into me - in ways bigger than what it is I have yet to know (maybe these are my five years of foundation???).

I can be, in all Divine and due time, just like the baby blueberry bush. I’ll be able to generously share even more of my heart, my time, my spirit, my fruit and nectar with all who want to feast - but first, I must, I must, I must continue to root into me - and truly, I feel that is the guidance for us right now. which means challenging the schedule, challenging the status quo, challenging the structures and patterns and habits we currently place our power, prioritization, and capacity.

Can we ask ourselves over and over again: will this serve me later? as well as now?

What if, just like the baby blueberries, this season of life is begging for us to bring the energy in and down? to take good and radical and resilient care of you? and me? and us?

What if we stopped pouring our energy and time and resources into people and politics and products that are just for the show and not for the sustenance, sacredness, and continuum of creation for all?

What if you brought your energy downward today and considered with every action we take: will this serve me now as well as later? and dear one, if our answer is no, may we find and feel our way down into the earth, the body, the sacred temple of the heart and soul, and please oh please, try again…

May we be like the baby blues.

I ground down for me.

I ground down for you.

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PS: dear friends! Yoga outdoors at Russell’s blueberry farm returns in July! All are welcome to this space. Our practice will be grounding, gentle, and generative of love, life, and liberation! All are always welcome, all are always more than worthy.