Watering Dirt: Part 2

Are you a flower or a vine?

May 05, 2024

Hey It’s Jenny, your home yoga hype girl!

Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share insights from my personal practice & the best online yoga resources, handpicked just for you.

Welcome to “Watering Dirt: Part 2”!! Here’s an overview of what you can expect from this issue…

Root/Reflection: Last week, I introduced you to the Chinese bamboo tree, a miraculous testament to the power of patience, perseverance and faith. (If you missed it, you can read it here: Watering Dirt: Part 1) This week, I’m taking you a bit deeper into the growth pattern of this botanical wonder.

Rise/Practice: Our “Put it into Practice” section is absolutely stacked this week! The classes are so good, I was tempted to split the classes up and spread the wealth over a few issues. They are all a great fit for this week’s topic though, so I’m sharing them today.

So, what’s happening underneath the surface of all that well-watered dirt? Is the little seed lying dormant while the gardener patiently waits for it to split and sprout?

Of course not! Despite the seemingly baron surface, there’s a lot of underground activity going on. The seed is establishing a support system, ensuring that the future above-ground growth will withstand even the harshest conditions.

The seed does this by growing an intricate, underground root system before it pops up to reach for the sun. This phenomenon is called “phototropism” and it’s the topic of today’s musings.

I’m going to tell you all about it, but first, a personal anecdote about how I came to be literally obsessed with the concept.

What if I’m not a flower?

“Nature Never Fucks Up”

Sahara Rose

Ironically, the seed for this issue was sown five years ago during a lecture from Sahara Rose, promoting her book “Discover Your Dharma: A Vedic Guide to Finding Your Purpose”. In her opening statements, she described the perfection of nature and how every person is born into that perfection. To illustrate this, she shared a sentiment about plants that stuck with me long after the presentation was over.

I went back through my notebooks and found the exact quote,

“We can see that nature in itself is perfection. A plant's not like ‘I just forgot how to grow this one time. I don't trust it…’ No. It just goes. It just continues. It just follows the light”

Something about the idea of a plant instinctually growing towards the light was extremely captivating to me. I turned the image over and over in my head for days, envisioning myself as a fragile flower growing upward towards the sun. It was such a romantic idea.

Unfortunately, the longer I sat with it, the less sense it made. Especially in the way Sahara Rose intended - as a universal metaphor for life.

I’ve known delicate flowers. People who popped out of fertile soil and just seemed to grow effortlessly in the direction of the sun. They weathered moderate rainstorms and bloomed beautifully right where they were planted.

I’m not one of them.

I knew it was just a metaphor, but something about it nagged at me.

I decided to google it.

“Do plants always grow towards the light?”

And that’s how I ended up taking a deep dive, down the rabbit hole of phototropism.

Phototropism

“Phototropism is the ability of a plant to grow in the direction of light”

BYJU's

Phototropism is the natural tendency of plants to grow, or orient themselves, in response to light. Plant stems and leaves use positive phototropism to grow toward a light source. Roots, on the other hand, use negative phototropism to grow away from light.

Roots are the first growth to emerge from any seed. They anchor the plant into the ground, absorbing water to nourish and support the shoots when they emerge.

So, technically, a plant actually grows away from the light before it ever grows towards it. How long the process takes, depends heavily on the type of plant.

The Chinese bamboo tree prioritizes strength, structure and stability. It spends four long years establishing a sturdy and complex root system before shifting into positive phototropism, popping above ground and growing rapidly towards the light.

In this context, I can see how my life almost fits into Sahara Rose’s metaphor.

I am resilient, a quality the Chinese bamboo tree is well known for. I had to laugh when I read that bamboo is “hard to kill”, a phrase I know has been uttered about me once or twice. I was quite wild in my youth and well into my adulthood. I put myself in a lot of mind-numbingly dangerous situations, and barely escaped a few of them unscathed. Although, many of them did scathe me…most often a little, and occasionally a lot.

There’s a reason they say “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. I can see how all of those struggles, mistakes and yes, i’ll say it, traumas were sending roots way down in to my life and creating the internal reservoir of tenacity and toughness I draw upon every day.

Be A Vine

I relate to the Chinese bamboo tree, but there’s actually another amazing member of the plant world that I relate to even more: vines.

Vines, similar to the Chinese bamboo tree, follow a peculiar growth pattern. However, unlike the Chinese bamboo tree, which stubbornly takes it’s time but still follows the rules, vines create their own rules.

Tropical vines, for example, sprout in heavily canopied areas like rainforests and jungles. There is no light to grow towards because it’s blocked by the dense foliage. So, the vines employ negative phototropism…but not to root. Instead, they crawl along the forrest floor in search of the deepest, darkest shadow and climb the tree that cast it. It uses the tree like a support beam to get above the obstacles and into the sunlight.

Now there’s a trajectory I can relate to.

Sahara Rose’s perplexing metaphor is nice sentiment, but she left out a lot of nuance. Which is why I think I had such a hard time connecting with it, even though I really wanted to. Who doesn’t want to be a beautiful flower, basking unbothered in the sunlight?

Unfortunately, as much as we’d like to, we can’t all be delicate flowers.

Some of us were not planted in a carefully cultivated flower bed. We weren’t meant to pop easily, out of gently packed soil, into ideal conditions. The universe has bigger plans for us.

We are designed to crawl along the forrest floor, find the deepest, darkest shadows; wrap ourselves around the most challenging trees and climb.

From where I sit today, I have an areal view of everything i’ve been through. I see that the things that held me back were making me strong. The self destructive behaviors - like addiction and eating disorders, the unease that stemmed from lifelong anxiety and bouts of depression, my relationship with my beloved alcoholic father and every other obstacle I faced.

I wrapped myself around all of those painful experiences and I climbed.

Was it worth it? Yes. I think I like being a vine.

Qi Gong & Yin Yoga To Cultivate Patience | Happy Liver | Annie Au

27 Minutes | All Levels | Beginner Friendly

This was my first experience with Qi Gong and I loved it! I’ve been experimenting with new ways to explore movement in my personal practice and this is a lovely addition.

The class is gentle, meditative and satisfying. Annie’s teaching style is calm and informative. I learned a lot of new things while practicing with her. If you’re looking to cultivate patience while your roots grow stronger, this one’s for you!

Grounding Yoga Nidra | 30 Minutes with Ally Boothroyd

30 Minutes | All Levels | Beginner Friendly

Where do I begin? First off, this class is a personal favorite of mine to practice and to teach. My students seem to love it every bit as much as I do.

Ally’s grounding Yoga Nidra practice provides an opportunity to embody the feeling of taking root in a deep and visceral way. It’s incredibly grounding. I highly recommend this for everyone, anytime. You will never regret loading it up!

Yoga Flow Sequence for Creative Spring Energy | 20 Minute Gentle Vinyasa Flow | Laia Bove

23 minutes | All Levels

I just love it when I find an amazing new teacher on Youtube. Laia is my newest discovery. Her self proclaimed mission is “to make yoga accessible and enriching for people wanting to introduce more wellness practices into their life to find balance”.

This Spring themed class features a gentle, flowy sequence that felt so darn good in my body. I practiced this class in the afternoon and it gave me a nice little boost of energy. It could be an upbeat morning class too, for especially energetic days.

I just had to share a picture of my current snack of choice: peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches! They’ve been floating my boat lately.

Do you have a comfort snack? You know, the one you make when you’re home alone and can’t be bothered to cook, but you’re hungry for something satisfying? Tell me about it in the comments!