Cycles

The leaves of the trees fall to the ground. They cover my patio and need to be swept up. I pile them into the garden. This will help protect the roots of the garden plants through the winter. They may also decompose some and return nutrients back into the soil. They may provide cover and food for small creatures.

Even at the end of a cycle, we are still contributing back to our environment. Endings and beginnings are not permanent but moments of transition. The ending of one cycle becomes the beginning of the next.

What cycles have you been through in your life? I have been through school, college, committed relationships, home ownership, moving to new places, different jobs. . . Each has taught me more about myself and the world around me. My hope is to gain and give more wisdom than pain in each cycle.

17 November 2019

Contrasts

The elements of nature are our building blocks. We must honor each of those within ourselves. Water: being fluid, cleansing; earth: nurturing, supportive; fire: burning away of the old to create new; air: creative and connection. Keep each in balance.

Sometimes once we have found our strengths we become comfortable capitalizing on those and forget to explore those areas in which we are not as strong in. If you are a planner, could you do something spontaneous? If you avoid schedules, then is there some self discipline practice that might enrich your days? Both are important.

16 November 2019

Focus

“Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

It is true that sometimes we become too engrossed in our screens. I have found myself gathering snippets of information like a lost hiker in the woods who is cold and desperate. I gather small twigs until I can hold nothing else. I go and start my fire with one of my two matches. The fire burns quick and bright consuming the kindling quickly. Before the fire can even warm the ground around it, much less myself, it has burned out.

I have one match left. The sun has set and it is getting colder. I am shivering uncontrollably. However, if I repeat the mistake I just made I will be cold for the rest of the night and have no warmth at all. I must not gather just small twigs but also larger branches and stumps of wood. I must look for pieces that are more substantial to sustain a fire throughout the cold, dark night.

Sometimes this is what social media brings us, lots of headlines that ignite our interest but how often do we take the time to learn the full context of those headlines? And then what have we learned? What actions will we take as a consequence of our learning? This is where knowledge and wisdom come in. If you only take in the information but do not reflect on it’s meaning, do not act on it’s lessons then you are just perpetually gathering twigs. It is not the technology’s fault. It is doing what it is designed to do, give a little information on a lot of topics. It is our responsibility to use discernment and select the areas where we spend our time, our energy.

Technology is not the enemy, the enemy is our own lack of impulse control. There are no easy solutions. The only solution is critical thought. Take a breath, feel how you feel about it: Is this worth your energy? Is this something you can affect? How are you making others feel?

15 November 2019

Growth

Lobsters, like many creatures subject to nature, have a small survival rate from birth and a tough maturing process. Only 1/10 of 1% of Lobsters survive from birth to adults, that is 10 out of 10,000 eggs.

source: The American Lobster: http://www.parl.ns.ca/lobster/lifecycle.htm

A lobster begins as an egg, then hatches as a small bug-like larva. They bob in the water growing, shedding their soft exo-skeleton through several early stages in a form most of us wouldn’t recognize. In the beginning stages, they use their front appendages to swim. The first molting of the soft shell can take days or even up to a week. They struggle to survive. They go to the light of the surface but dive again into deeper waters to molt. They are easy prey for fish or other sea creatures. From one molting to the next they develop more of the body we are used to seeing, this is within the first month of their life. Now they have claws, a definite body cavity, legs, a segmented abdomen leading to a tail and little swimmerets (swimming legs).

However, the struggle of growing is never fully complete. Even in this adult form the body inside that hard shell continues to grow. Eventually, that body no longer fits comfortably in that old, protective shell. The transition is tough but necessary. The lobster will store calcium in the walls of it’s stomach, it will allow some appendages to shrink, begin to grow a new soft shell. It will take in extra water inside the shell, bend itself into a V-shape until the link between the main body and segmented abdomen splits open. It will then work itself out of it’s old shell. This is a very vulnerable time for the lobster. So it will often stay in or close to it’s burrow. Once the old shell is molted, the calcium from the stomach walls is released into the stomach to be reabsorbed. The lobster will bring in water into it’s body, enlarging it’s body’s mass. The new shell will begin to harden. And the cycle will go on and on.

Watching nature we can learn many lessons. The lesson I see here is that growing out of our old, protective habits or social networks can be tough and even painful. It may be necessary though in order to move forward in our own growth. We may need to go into our burrows at times to protect ourselves during these transitions. What or who makes up your burrow? What or who keeps you feeling safe, secure, supported while you work to grow? Be aware of these people, these habits that protect us as we grow. Employ them when needed, show gratitude for them, and do the same for others when you can. Who sees you as part of their support? How can you support others in a way that doesn’t deplete your own resources? How do you feel when you know others are grateful for you?

14 November 2019