On being perennial
“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.”
I came home this week to a surprise. My neighbors on either side had gifted me peony-like roses from their gardens, gathered into a glass jar painted with a quiet geisha—graceful and elegant both—the breadth of life on one stoop.
What we see is often the smallest part of the story. We miss a lot if we don't lean in with curiosity and use all our senses to listen, taste, feel. Roots run deep and broad amongst us, and even when the light isn't visible, the light is there. Flowers are a good reminder.
These flowers are disciplined. They grow. They get pruned. They go dormant. They come back. Not as a milestone but as a season—a pattern, a cycle, a return.
We as humans forget that we do this too. We grow. We get pruned. We go dormant. And we can come back, and do—season by season. Gina Pell coined the word perennial in 2016 to describe a person who isn't defined by generation but by an "ever-blooming, relevant" mindset that crosses ages. As I soon turn 50, I love that. Life isn't over at 50! Not by a chance. I simply need to look at my laugh lines to see roots, light, resonance. Moving forward, of course I can and will stay involved and curious, willing to take risks and to mentor. And of course I can and will stay passionate, collaborative, creative, confident. Being perennial is about having an enduring, open mind. Of using all of our senses to continuously begin again.
Flowers are also a good reminder of breath. And the notion of breath brought with it another surprise. Earlier this week, during my yoga teacher's mentorship meeting, we pulled up Daily Wisdom, and the sutra chosen was 2.50—bāhya ābhyantara stambha vṛttiḥ deśa kāla saṅkhyābhiḥ paridṛṣṭaḥ dīrgha sūkṣmaḥ—which describes the three movements of the breath: the inhale, the exhale, the pause in between. The pause being long and subtle, where regeneration lives.
Place. Length. Precision. So too with breath, so too with life. Plants go dormant on schedule. Roots do the work no one sees. They return the next season. Again and again, following a cycle, a discipline, an order.
Pranayama is the practice of being perennial. It isn't a wellness add-on. It's the thing underneath. We humans tell ourselves we can operate on whim—that we can do anything without discipline. But all of nature follows discipline. Our breath does, too; so do we. And when we regulate our breath, we regulate our mind. The two move together.
The roots keep the light. The breath keeps the order. And we, perennial, keep returning.