For mother’s day, my family gave me a lovely gift: a mural to be painted in Gia’s room. We haven’t decided exactly what we are going to create, but the first image that came to mind was a tree.

Time and again, the tree image has been a source of inspiration for me. I wear a “tree of life” engraved on a necklace; I chose the location for my wedding because of a path of cedar trees that connects two gardens on the property. I have the fondest memories of playing under an enormous weeping willow as a child. I brought my mother to visit that tree years later and told her she was going to be a grandmother.

I love the woods. Trees draw me in.

In my therapy practice, I often use a tree metaphor with clients who are learning to change the way the react to the circumstances of their lives. I talk about learning to be like a tree, firmly rooted and steady, but able to sway and bend with a storm.

In my yoga classes, I often include tree pose, and talk about this very metaphor. How can playing with balance and standing steady, but ready to bend, help is in our approach to life?

A tree is at once strong and beautiful, inviting yet demanding of reverence, powerful yet soft, steady yet bendable. It changes, it grows, it gives, and it takes only what it needs. As mothers, we need to embody these very same dualities. These very same qualities. So we come to yoga, we breath, and we practice tree.