... human beings acted more like plants?
Summer is coming to a close here on the West Coast and all the early flowers have long become dormant again – Snowdrop, Purple Crocus, Polyanthus and Lily of the Valley. Some of the other flowers are going to seed – Fireweed, Alum Root and Pearly Everlasting. And some plants, like Red Huckleberry and Salal and Nootka Rose, are bearing their fruits. There is an abundance of fruit this year, which perhaps bodes for a more severe winter.
As I look at what’s happening in Nature at this cycle of the year, I marvel at the intelligence all around me. There seems to be a natural rhythm of beginnings and endings. Every living thing in Nature is responding to some inner intelligence that was contained in the seed. And I wonder what the planet would look like and feel like if human beings were to attune in the same way to their own inner rhythms.
Even in the middle of this drought, the plants appear to be content and know exactly what to do to conserve their energy – their leaves and petals droop, and they pull their energy into their roots so that the species will survive. And they still give us their beauty and their fragrance and their presence.
Plants show us a way of 'being who we can be.' We never see Fireweed trying to be Yellow Pond Lily. We never hear Red Huckleberry complaining that it is not as good as or not as pretty as Salal. But when I listen to human conversation, I often hear judgement and comparisons and dissatisfaction.
What would be the result if humans were as attuned as plants are to their own needs for sustenance and support? For one thing, we wouldn’t be glued to our phones and devices, ruled by time and deadlines which so often create extra stress in our Body/Minds that goes unnoticed by us as we strive to ______________. Strive to what? Fill in the blank to notice what it is that consumes your energy.
Moreover we would be present – not only to what is going on inside our own beings, but present and available to give our attention to another. I once heard Deepak Chopra say that the greatest gift we can give another human being is our attention. Or as Simone Weil put it, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
Actually, we are more like plants than we know. Our human body may be the greatest miracle in the world, designed with a system of checks and balances (called homeostasis) that operates 24/7 without any direction from us. In fact, at a physical level we respond to the messages it sends us, like the needs of thirst and hunger, and for elimination and rest. If we are exposed to some toxin, an inflammation response occurs and fights to keep our bodies in balance and health. In excess heat, all of our organs conserve fluids so we do not become dehydrated.
What may harm us and cause us distress are our own thoughts and our emotional reactions to our thoughts. While flowers also have thoughts, it appears that their thoughts are always life-supporting and for the higher good.
The only safeguard we humans have is our ability to make choices about how we will respond to every situation we encounter. I have coined the phrase multi-dimensional homeostasis to account for our free will and consciousness and the innate knowing for Self-preservation and the possibility for Self-actualization with which we are born.
Perhaps we can take guidance from the message from Yellow Pond Lily, which is still blooming at the end of summer:
In the knowing of who I am, I float free.
In the knowledge of who you are, I let go.
No emotional baggage to weigh me down.
No emotional drama to consume my energy.
___________________________
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