Living Fences

I just returned from Panama, and I noticed along the roadside clearly defined rows of trees everywhere. Some trees were hacked off at the top and just looked like a rugged fencepost and others had straight branches jutting out at all angles. The trees create a fence that sometimes has barbed wire strung between, or the trees were so close together it didn’t require wire in between. In my yoga classes since I have been back I have used the image of the trees/posts. The ability to plant and replant my feet and legs into the earth, to pull my thigh bones back, and to notice the space between each planted foot.

On the way to surfing I asked our teacher and Panama resident about them. She said they are called “Living Fences”. The Balo trees (I think they are Balo trees) grow so rapidly in Panama during the rainy season that they just hack off one of the branches growing at the top on literally stick it in the ground in line with the other trees and it will grow another tree/post. You can tell how long someone has been maintaining that plot of land by how close the trees run along the property line.

I love these two words together….living fences. The idea of boundaries can be physical, emotional, conceptual, or metaphorical. They can apply to many aspects of life including personal relationships, professional behavior, or even creative endeavors. The boundary helps us define what is acceptable or permissible within that context. While it is healthy to establish boundaries, the idea that it can live and breathe, grow, and change, allows me to imagine a more harmonious existence. Where the boundaries are clear…but not impenetrable. That they too, like us, all become a part of nature, expanding and contracting.

XO

JK