Stretching in the Elm Cathedral
I have written elsewhere about the American elms found on the property of my workplace. To summarize, American elms were a favorite of city planners in the 19th and early 20th centuries until Dutch Elm Disease started mowing them down.
Anyway, there is a stand of American elm trees where I work that somehow avoided Dutch Elm Disease. I suspect they are volunteers from nearby elms planted long ago since these volunteers seem randomly placed, milling about rather than taking a designated spot. True to the way of elms, the elms in this stand branch beautifully, forming a canopy that creates dense shade particularly in the mid to late afternoons. The arching of the branches reminded me of buttresses in a medieval church, thus I began referring to this area as the Elm Cathedral.
A recent heat wave drove me to get my two walks done early in the day. Leaving aside the safety of walking briskly in 100° heat, there are the social mores about being red faced and sweaty at work. But to sit or even stand at a desk all day was untenable. I needed to go outdoors in the afternoon and do something but what?
My solution was a short stretching session in the Elm Cathedral. My stretches are yoga moves that I do for mental and physical strength, flexibility and balance. I recently stopped using the term yoga to describe what I do since that term is fraught with cultural appropriation and colonization. The way I understand it, yoga is more than the poses and since I don't practice the whole discipline, I think I should call what I do something else. So stretching it is until I come up with something better.
The elms make a lovely place to stretch. Cicadas and an occasional bird provide a choir in the cool, green shade. The squirrels watch me in the way that squirrels do. Despite being nearish to a road I don't seem to attract that much attention from people passing by or if I do I do not notice nor, to be honest, really care.
With every session I realize I am that much closer to when the weather will drive me inside. The cold and eventually snow will come as they always do but they will in turn be followed by spring and summer and the Elm Cathedral will once again be open.
