Wisteria Pergola

How many times has shade saved you? How often has its cooling oasis given you refuge from scorching sun? What is the generosity of the dark? Are there ways to reciprocate with that which gives respite and rejuvenation? Can you express gratitude to humble climbing plants? Notice how the air feels different inside the canopy. Notice how life thrives there.

Movement: Wisteria, with its long-life and wildly growing tendrils is a symbol of immortality, abundance, and sensuality. To control and shape its path of growth, gardeners train and restrain it with pruning and vigilance. Connect with a time that your own movement or growth was constricted by others. Breathe into any tension that arises. Release it with a cleansing breath. Before entering the archway, create a simple forward moving movement pattern that you will adhere to for the length of the path. For example, five steps forward, two steps to the right, five steps forward, two steps to the left, etc. While being mindful of others, walk your pattern through the pergola. Embrace the joy of determining your own path as you do.

Writing: This land has had many lives. It has, of course, always been part of Lenapehoking – the lands of the Lenni Lenape people. It also lived for many years as the New Jersey State Fairgrounds. This pergola was built where one of the curves of the horse racetrack was. What is now full of peaceful lush foliage was once marked by pounding hooves. After spending time in the archway, write a piece in any form that begins, “and they’re off…” Write into the spirit that a place or a person can hold a multitude of lives/histories within them.