This willow and I have been through a lot together.
In my old apartment next door to my new one, I had a view of the willow from my kitchen window, I used to drink red wine, smoke and watch the tree. My heart was sad, heavy. Sad from a broken marriage, broken love affairs, broken life.
During the winter months I would sit at the kitchen table and drink, Fred my trusty dog and best friend would sit in the chair opposite me. I would always say, in the spring the willow will grow new leaves again and so will I.
Each spring the willow did and I felt a bit better. It was a bit like Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree.
Two years ago I moved into my now apartment, my home. I see the willow from every one of my seven windows. My life is different.
Now I teach yoga under the tree, I work in the garden, I'm part of the community, I don't drink, I have faith in a power greater than myself.
Somedays are harder than others. The past few haven't felt great. But the yoga helps a lot. Practice and teaching. It calms me, takes me out of my head for an hour at a time.
Yesterday I took two classes and taught one. Today the willow provided shelter from the storm (kind of like the Bob Dylan song), then the sunset in all it's glory reminding me that the storms don't last too long. Even when they happen in the middle of something that is true pleasure.
bob dylan - shelter from the storm 1976
