The Girl Who Could Not Stay Dry
Every August meant one thing for our entire family...the Adirondacks. I can still smell the fresh pine trees, hear the water lapping against the dock, feel the cool lake water on my skin, then warming up by the campfire with a steaming cup of Swiss Miss, the flames hypnotizing me.
And, of course, there was laughing with my sister and cousins until our stomachs hurt. We spent every waking moment adventuring and making memories together.
I also spent a surprising amount of time...in the lake.
Somehow, I was forever accidentally falling in. l'd be standing on the dock one minute and-SPLASH!-the next. Walking along the shoreline rocks? There went another sneaker into the water. I can't tell you how many times my socks were draped over the clothesline because I'd managed to soak them yet again.
"Leanne! AGAIN?!" would ring out from someone, somewhere, in bewilderment. The funny thing is, as kids, we fall into the water...and five minutes later we're laughing about it. As adults, we often fall—we make a mistake, lose our balance, have a hard day—and somehow we spend far longer criticizing ourselves than we do getting back up.
Have you ever wobbled on your mat and immediately tried to hide it? Or fallen out of a pose and looked around to see if anyone noticed? Maybe you've even laughed and said, “My balance sucks!” Our minds are quick to create stories that simply aren't true. The ego steps in, convincing us that we need to look perfect, get it right, or somehow prove our worth.
But what if we approached our stumbles the way we did as kids? What if we didn't take ourselves quite so seriously? Instead of resisting the wobble, what if we embraced it?
Because underneath the shaking is something steady. Yoga invites us to discover that unwobbling, unshaking ground that has been there all along.
Falling in yoga is a beautiful mirror for life. It teaches us how to lose our balance without losing ourselves. It reminds us to let go of fear, breathe, and begin again with a calm mind. Both yoga and life are full of unexpected shifts where control is impossible. There will always be moments when we wobble, when frustration arises, when we fall out of a pose.
Yoga reminds us that falling isn't failure—it's part of our practice. We cultivate resilience on the mat so that when life shakes us, we already know how to steady ourselves. Maybe all those accidental falls into the lake were necessary stepping stones toward finding my balance. But more importantly, I think they were teaching me that falling isn't the end of the story.
We wobble.
We fall.
We splash.
We laugh.
We take a breath.
We dry our socks.
We carry on.
We hope you have a wonderful August. May it be filled with peaceful moments, making memories, lots of laughter, visits to Saha…and plenty of dry socks.
With Kindness,
LEANNE
