Child's Pose
"Watch him press his belly to his thighs, / touch his big toes together, / and lower his tender head to the floor/ as if he had renounced all things of this world..."
Hello yogis, poets, and seekers of inspiration!
Who reading this loves Child’s Pose?
I do.
And I don’t.
When I first started practicing yoga, it took me time and patience to surrender what I considered my “go,go, go, do, do, do,” identity and give into this restorative posture– or any restorative posture for that matter.
This comes from old fears of not being good enough, strong enough, thin enough, etc.. But with practice, I learned to breathe and rest and melt into this small and purposeful stretch.
Humbling, grounding. Here is Child’s Pose:
Child’s Pose
Watch my son kneel to the floor speckled
with balls of dust, crumbled pieces
of masking tape, and the divine
presence of shoes thrown off at the door.
Watch him rest as he did in the womb,
and for the time being, witness
how there is no regard for the band aid
on his finger, no cry for milk, no
shivering fear of buzzing bees.
Watch him press his belly to his thighs,
touch his big toes together, and lower
his tender head to the floor as if
he had renounced all things of this world,
except for his stuffed white cat which lays
by his side purring with contentment
at finally being reunited with the Earth.
*Sanskrit: Balasana
The Journey Within
I love poets of the mystical tradition like Rumi, Hafiz, Mirabai, and more contemporarily, Mary Oliver. Although I was trained as a “street poet” and an “academic poet” I have always loved that space in between it all that calls attention to our very existence.
When I wrote this poem, it was at the beginning of the first wave of shut downs in 2020. I would step outside, and like many of us, question life, reality, and the very fabric of my existence. What grounded me, besides yoga, meditation, gardening, and breathwork, was my children and my focus on raising them.
I compare my younger son to a flower who would bring me into presence, but also to a small animal who would sometimes snarl, yell, and pose himself as a threat to my sense of order.
Opportunities for self-growth are sometimes packaged as challenges like a child saying, “No.” Other times, opportunities for self-growth are like the mountaintop moments when we are above the fray of our egos and all seems divine.
In my day to day life, a mess in the living room can activate me and call me inward to listen to the chatter of stories and fears. When I wrote Child’s Pose, it was about surrendering to my own need for rest and tenderness, but also allowing my son’s journey to bring me home to love.
Everything about this whole piece is so beautiful, especially the context. If the first half of my life was all the Warriors over-and-over-and-over (yep to that go-go-go), I want the second half to be Child's Pose. Nope, it's not that I'm just curled up in a ball. Not one bit. It's that I'm at ease in chaos or productivity or, no especially, when it's time to rest. Thank you for this reminder.
In child's pose I find that willingness to be vulnerable and go inward; I also love the sensation of my breath expanding into my back:)