The other day, I was checking out this book on jam making (Mes Confitures), looking for hints as the season of preserving comes upon us. The author, Christine Ferber, is France's most famous jam maker--an artist in her field. (gentle pun intended)
Perfectly ripe fruit is what she calls for, which carry jam's necessary components of pectin and sugar in just the right balance. How to tell? "Fruit is perfectly ripe when it makes no resistance to being picked."
---Whoa! Are we talking yoga here? Of course we yogis are always on the lookout for balance, bringing all our body pieces to the party on the mat. We aim to integrate our inner and outer worlds. But one of the most elusive of our balancing acts is effort and effortlessness: giving our yoga energy without hardness. Finding ease under a veil of sweat.
Birds do it. Once in a while you see a bird flying against the wind and you wonder if the poor dear will make it, as it struggles mightily, wings thrashing. But usually, birds know to ride the air currents. Witness them swoop and soar, arcing a grace-filled arabesque across the sky lifts our hearts.
Surfers do it too. They don't go out there to battle the ocean, but to catch a wave, working in tandem with the immense power of the water to feel an elation second to none.
The secret: it's not all on our backs. Of course, we do our best. But then we let go a little, we surrender. We catch a current. Ride the wave.
We offer no resistance, like a ripe piece of fruit--perfect.
And the Jam Lady's second insight? No two batches are the same. One's a little thicker, one sweeter. And that, she says, is its charm. Can we see our own day to day fluctuations on the mat--tighter one day, or more tired--as charming?
Well, maybe not.
But at least we can recognize that whatever is going on is just today's act, and our next go will be different. Every batch of jam is an act of creation, of transformation--just as every play day on our mats.
Enjoy the flow.
