It's a practice
Practice
is the art of repeating an activity regularly in order to learn or improve the ability to do that activity.
We live on a salt marsh, and for as long as I can remember there have been osprey nesting on perches mounted in the marsh. It is a marvel to be able to watch as the baby chicks learn to fly.
This past summer one of the two chicks was quick to find its wings, taking flight to the branch of a nearby tree where it waited patiently for its sibling to follow. The sibling fluttered into the air some two to three feet, hovering for the slimmest moment above the nest before floating back down to the safety of home. (In the video below, the first flyer patiently sits on the branch. Perhaps you are able to pick out the sibling watching from the nest.)
On another practice the sibling tried a different approach - hopping from one side of the almost four foot wide nest to the other. Over and over the sibling experimented with these approaches, occasionally interspersed with standing at nest’s edge rapidly flapping its wings as if to launch, then bringing them to rest along side and returning to the belly of the nest.
This is the osprey’s practice - learning to fly. Three days after the first osprey took flight, its sibling joined it. At first they both flew to nearby branches of the same tree as they began a new practice, that of learning how to land. This was followed by discovering the many ways of flying - when to work their wings and when they could just coast on the currents.
As I write this post in early August they have begun yet another practice, learning to find and catch their food, and yesterday I watched as one osprey practiced grabbing a stick.
Like the osprey practicing to fly, to catch a meal, and to build a nest, when I practice yoga I am learning and relearning how to move my body with my breath, to nourish my parasympathetic nervous system and to build my yoga practice one step at a time.