How to Fold Socks

One morning
we will wake up
and forget to build
that wall we’ve been building,
the one between us
the one we’ve been building
for years, perhaps
out of some sense
of right and boundary,
perhaps out of habit.
 
One morning
we will wake up
and let our empty hands
hang empty at our sides.
Perhaps they will rise,
as empty things
sometimes do
when blown
by the wind.
Perhaps they simply
will not remember
how to grasp, how to rage.
 
We will wake up
that morning
and we will have
misplaced all our theories
about why and how
and who did what
to whom, we will have mislaid
all our timelines
of when and plans of what
and we will not scramble
to write the plans and theories anew.
 
On that morning,
not much else
will have changed.
Whatever is blooming
will still be in bloom.
Whatever is wilting
will wilt. There will be fields
to plow and trains
to load and children
to feed and work to do.
And in every moment,
in every action, we will
feel the urge to say thank you,
we will follow the urge to bow.

- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

I also don't actually know where I found the above poem but I have had it sitting in the "poems that inspire stories" list for a while now.

As you move and meditate in this practice known as yoga, you find yourself confronting those walls built within ourselves.

Barriers that have been erected out of habit, fear or some sort of misguided sense of protection.

What if, one day, you woke up and those walls you have spent so long building, just disappeared into the ether?

And then in that moment, with nothing to hold onto anymore, your hands are empty, freed from the burdens of grasping on so tight 

Is this liberation? Even possible enlightenment?

This moment where Annika lets go of the need to do. To understand. To control. To assign blame.

And instead, find yourself immersed in the simple beauty of the present moment, where the flowers continue to bloom, and the tasks of daily life carry on 

For me, this poem speaks to the essence of yoga – a journey of surrender, acceptance, and gratitude. While the external world may remain unchanged, our internal landscape can undergo an unexpected yet still profound transformation, when we release the need to control, and simply allow ourselves to be.

In every breath, in every movement, we find ourselves drawn to the simple act of saying thank you, to this land, its teachers, to each other, and the interconnectedness of all things.

Till next week,

Annika xx

P.S Yoga Teacher Training begins in just over 6 weeks, May 5th every Sunday. You can learn more about the course, including payments plans, and if you can do the course even if you dont want to be a yoga teacher, by clicking here.

P.P.S Sometimes letting go of the walls we have built can also gently start in within the art of discarding. Just finished this book. Now to clear a day so I can thank my x60 pairs of socks, throw away x55 of them, and fold the other 5 "the correct way".