the case for perfection

Why do we so relentlessly question nature’s perfection?  In general, we seem to want to improve nature because we don’t think it’s perfect.  We see the bugs on the lettuce as a pest to be eradicated rather than asking why.  When the climate goes haywire or a virus affects the entire planet many see it as an aberration of nature instead of asking how it happened. Who is the culprit, we ask.

Nature is perfect - resilient, beautiful, abundant, grand, powerful, adaptable, magical, and a mirror of our beliefs and actions. When we can’t see that because we’re disconnected from it and interfere with it in order to bend it to our own distorted interpretation of what should be, that’s when the trouble starts. The trouble can manifest as climate change, Covid-19, Japanese beetle infestation, bee colony collapse syndrome, drought, and so many other environmental issues.  It also manifests in ourselves as disease or psychological issues.  As a species, we live in a permanent state of discontent and want to improve everything around us, yet have lost the key to seeing where to start.  

When we reconnect with the spiritual nature of nature, and that of our own imbeddedness in it, when we begin to search for that potentially bigger picture we just can’t see as yet, when we learn to trust that there’s rhyme and reason behind life instead of uncontrollable randomness, it all becomes more reassuring.  The key is actually inside each one of us, not out there.  This is an invitation to go inward and reconnect with ourselves and the bigger picture, that we are one with nature, not apart from it, and that when we’re out of balance, nature as a consequence suffers that imbalance and shows it to us like a mirror.  

Each one of us, hence, has the tremendous and awesome task to reconnect,  inward and outward, with our own true nature from which everything springs.  When you shift, it shifts.  When I shift, it shifts.  

on reconnecting with nature

Lots of Japanese beetles are happily frolicking on my roses this year, making a bit of a mess along the way, and some other pest, probably a moth caterpillar, has been laying eggs in our pussy willow and mauling its leaves.

Whether Climate Change, Covid-19, the garden pests, or so many other things – we tend to think that nature is out of balance.  But the more consequential conclusion is that we are out of sync with nature. We look to the outside for the culprit, a symptom based approach with little interest for the underlying cause.  Having become our planet’s biggest monoculture with the greatest impact on shaping the environment, the responsibility squarely falls on each one of us to make amends in rebalancing our relationship with it.  

Without a true understanding of the myriad elements that make up an ecosystem, each one of them contributing something that feeds back into the regenerative cycle, we tend to interfere in a reactionary way without being able to anticipate the consequences.  Used to the idea of getting rid of bugs with a spray can, we are learning the hard way that Monsanto has been making a worldwide mess of the environment and our health with their glyphosate that’s now showing up everywhere, including inside our bodies.

So, I won’t add insult to injury, and add more poison to a fragile planet that needs healing.  Maybe the bats that are living in our cliff can use this new food source of beetles and pests, or maybe the pests will promote the multiplication of the bats, which is a good thing. Whichever way around it is, nature is far wiser than I am, and I will leave it to the bats and birds to eat the excess bugs in my garden, instead of pulling out the spray.  A wonderful documentary about the 7-year rehabilitation of an abandoned farm into a sustainable and thriving orchard, The Biggest Little Farm, shows how intricate a balanced ecosystem truly is, how many elements contribute to a thriving environment, and that we can regenerate and rebuild by making an effort to reconnect with nature in a deeper way.  

pandemic gardening

Out in meadows and fields, woods and swamps, plants just grow however they do. Dead wood decays and contributes to new humus, flowers bloom and wilt, color combinations are not planned, instead self-seeding nilly willy, and nobody cleans up to make it all look “pretty” to our human eye.  Nature is wild and unkempt, which has its own beauty, but it lacks a human sense of order.  

During these out-of-the-ordinary times many, including us, have resorted to gardening, a small attempt at controlling something in our lives when so much in the world is out of our control.  I feel in charge when I deadhead roses, prune, compose vignettes with different plants that bloom sequentially or follow a color scheme, in order to make our garden beautiful.

There is indeed something controlling about the sense of order and beauty we impose on our gardens.  French Gardens may be the most controlled of all landscapes with their geometrically shaped hedges, linear beds, fountains, and pebbled walkways and expanses, although Japanese Gardens are highly stylized as well.  An English Garden, on the other hand, is much more free flowing and natural looking.  

Loss of control, or even just the perception of it, promotes depression, while control over our life  promotes longevity.  Control over something, even just our garden, can thus give us a sense of balance and purpose. Have you found activities during this pandemic that give you a sense of control?

zooming....in and out

Enough posts about social change, at least for today.  Let’s change focus a bit.  

When I keep reading, thinking, pondering, and staying in general within my own echo chamber, my thoughts end up going ‘round and ‘round and my beliefs become stuck – just like when I lie awake at 3am and can’t shake that to-do list.  I hone in on the small stuff, lose perspective, and with it the ability to judge and discern.

Whether sitting at my desk for a long time and staring intently at the screen while lasering in on a particular task, or perhaps thinking intently about the current pandemic to the exclusion of other news, I find it really important to adjust my perspective – a small reboot of sorts.  For that I need juxtaposition – zooming out, the way we zoom in and out on a map or document.  Zooming in provides details but lacks perspective (we see the leaves but not the forest), zooming out provides perspective but lacks the fine grit (we see the forest but not the intricacies of what grows on the ground).   We need both views to gain a complete picture of a situation, issue or problem.  

A good way to refocus is to do something completely different for a bit, by shifting away.  Just now, after staring at my screen for a long time, I took a brief walk through my garden, watching how the new seedlings we planted at the beginning of May are doing, being amazed at how fast the soil dries out  after this morning’s watering session, and just looking at the bees and listening to the birds.  Not only do my eyes have a chance to refocus their vision from near to far, but my mind gets a rest as well.

Another way to refocus is to seek out a different perspective.  When it comes to the news, I check in with news organizations from other countries to see what their take is.  Regarding politics, diet, religion or anything else, it’s helps to have a conversation with someone of a differing opinion to realize that mine is not the only way to look at something.  Check out a previous related post “pizza every night?”  Travel is of course the ultimate reset and reboot.  But besides taking more time and costing more money, it’s for beyond-corona-times.  So maybe some camping for a bigger reboot while we’re all staying close to home? What are your tricks for adjusting your perspective?

wow!

When was the last time a bully motivated you to shift your attitude or behavior through threats or other aggressive measures?  I didn’t think so.

Dismantling the Minneapolis police department,  as their City Counsel vowed to do a few days ago?   I thought I didn’t hear right.  Even reducing police department funding, as many other large US cities are all of a sudden discussing, seems radical for here.  I would have said “interesting,” if I had heard something like that about Norway, which has, proportionately, one of the lowest prison populations in the world, because their approach to criminal justice is reformative, not punitive.  But here!  That is an amazing shift towards constructive social change.  

With one of the worst racial inequalities in the country, the idea to reform Minneapolis’s social fabric by shifting funding from police to community development is nothing short of radical, a nonviolent approach in nonviolent communication speak.  Granted, it’ll take time to develop the logistics (here an outline of what alternate policing might look like), and this idea will not sit well with many conservatives.

But the increasingly aggressive, authoritarian and weaponized approach to policing in this country has not made things better.  Authoritarian behavior results in anger, distrust, defiance, and ultimately resignation, a result of a punitive criminal justice system with its disproportionately large prison population compared to other Western countries.  “An eye for an eye” does not work, only a compassionate approach ultimately does because it builds people up instead of taking them down (see an earlier post, “drop the hammer,” on this).  It’s the difference between a glass half full or a glass half empty, or seeing the best in people instead of the worst.  

We are witnessing something big.  When the time is ripe things can get unstuck, and stuff beyond our wildest dreams is possible.  

hold on to your seat!

When people get murdered, or even discriminated against, because of their skin color;  when I have to think twice about a medical procedure, and more than ½ million people go bankrupt every year because they can’t pay their medical bills; when people work two or three jobs and still barely get by; when sick leave is not encouraged and sick meat workers go to work because they can’t afford not to; when education is discouraged by way of its astronomical cost, and the educational level of the country as a whole stays behind other developed countries; when pollution and deforestation are encouraged through profit oriented policies and we all get sicker;  then I cannot live deeply.  

This country is convulsing as we are experiencing the flip side and unravelling of a profit-above-all value system that no longer works for the majority of people,  and favors an ever slimmer percentage of the population.  The American Empire is crumbling because its values are rotten at the core. Racism, the cultural trauma this country is still carrying even after slavery has been long abolished, is still simmering under the surface and has broken out again, and again, and again, because it’s never been healed.  And so many other socio-cultural issues are broken as well.  

The tectonic shift I referenced in an earlier post is happening in real time.  We are experiencing an epic scream for awakening and change on all levels.  Inclusivity, togetherness, cooperation, trust, and sustainability are all values that are bigger than racism and social inequality.  Moving from Me to We is what we must do to resolve the biggest challenges in the history of humanity.  Leaving the myth of separation, as Charles Eisenstein calls it in his recent essay The Conspiracy Myth, behind, and uniting for a common cause, that of a better, more sustainable, life for all inhabitants of this earth, is a consciousness revolution, a shift in perception and thinking.  

When that shift happens for a critical mass among us, we will be able to tackle climate change, racism, hunger, and all the other challenges we brought upon ourselves because we believe we’re separate from each other and from nature. Revolutions are often messy because we fear the unknown and thus resist change. But the status quo is no longer acceptable, and neither is going back to whence we came, pre-corona, because we have already moved too far into the space in between. The best thing you can do is embrace the change and imagine a more beautiful new world (actually an Eisenstein book title).

now what?

This week the pace picked up considerably, the energy has changed.  From the news we can see that it is becoming increasingly difficult, especially with the warmer weather, to keep people isolated.  Bars are still closed in France, but people over there have adopted the apérue, apéritif dans la rue, apéritif taken in the street, in order to get out of the house.  Over here we’ve had demonstrations against the restrictions.

Most, but the most vulnerable, are ready to come out of lockdown and pick up where they left off in March, even if it has to be with certain precautions. While I can deal with face masks and strange shopping logistics for a while longer, I seriously miss seeing people in person.  It’s bad for the immune system and our emotional health to be kept away from parents, children, grandkids, and friends.  Zoom is just no substitute.

There was a certain comfort in the slower pace of daily life during the past two months.  Life has been simple, a bit boring of course, but also more relaxed.  Shorter workdays, more sleep, less frenzy.  But as an acquaintance said a few weeks ago, he is not ready for retirement, and neither am I.  Moreover, I am ready for shifts based on our conclusions from this episode (see my silver lining posts from the past few months), I am ready to live again, I am ready to be with people and do business, I’m ready to contribute to meaningful change. 

What has shifted for you during the two lockdown months?  What has changed in your lifestyle or thinking since mid-March about this whole situation and its aftermath?  Will you do anything differently now?

Goodbye COVID-19, welcome new world!

patience needed - silver lining #14

Many things take longer during the current Corona crisis.  With the bank closed, I wait in line for the drive-up.  Since the supermarket only lets in so many people at a time, I wait in line, six feet apart, to get in, and I wait in line to check out, six feet apart, to be assigned to a cash register.  Socializing on Zoom, when everyone talks over each other and the conversation becomes dysfunctional, I have no choice but to be patient with this less-than-perfect medium.  My basement is full of empty egg cartons, empty bottles, and plastic bags that all need to be returned for reuse or recycling.  Sooner or later I will be able to clear this backlog out – patience.  Even Amazon doesn’t currently deliver as fast as it used to during normal times.

We need patience to wait for the governor’s Go to reopen our businesses, to wait for the economy to creep back, to wait for this virus to pass through the population and do its thing.  We need patience during this pregnant pause to see how we will come out the other end.  If you’re looking for a vaccine against the virus, you’ll need to be patient. If you’re looking to go back to school or college, or to return to restaurants and gyms, and to a new normal, you’ll need patience.

We have been used to “instantaneously,” but that just doesn’t work right now. We have been stopped in our tracks. What are you doing with this?

inner beauty

A turkey vulture is not exactly a pretty animal.  Not all animals are, although each has a distinct purpose in nature’s processes, which is beautiful in itself.

Last weekend I noticed a turkey vulture sitting outside our kitchen window in the grass, a most unusual sight.  Big and impressive, dark and a bit ominous, somewhat threating and ugly, and so close.  It stayed there for a while, then it was gone. A bit later I found it elsewhere in the garden, seemingly at rest, then hopping to an adjacent rock, never flying.   Then it was gone again, but it had simply leapt out of sight, to a stone ledge below where I couldn’t see it.  Maybe it wanted to be at peace, left alone.

I became concerned that it had broken its wing and called the Audubon Society to find a wildlife rehabilitator.  I felt sorry for the large bird.  Its ugliness was no longer relevant, its beingness touched a soft spot in my heart.

Just before calling the raptor rehabilitator I looked around to see where it was, but the vulture had disappeared.  I looked all over the place.  Had I been mistaken? Was it ok after all?  Later that afternoon, I saw a vulture at the end of the property flying high up into a tree, and I thought, “Is this my vulture, is it ok?”  

Two days after the incident we were planting new seedlings in the woods and, lo and behold, we found a dead turkey vulture on the ground, under that tree.  I felt sad that I hadn’t been able to save him - once I connected, it became he.  I had felt a connection to this ugly bird.  I didn’t want him to suffer.  Beauty and the Beast, an old theme, inner beauty hidden under an ugly shell.  Repugnance had given way to compassion, and I no longer associated this raptor with carrion, just a being in need of empathy.  A shift (see a previous post on shifting).

from I to we - silver lining #13

You would like to go back to work and earn a living again.  You have elder relatives who may be at risk.  Perhaps your business must open again so you can make money and put food on your table.  You’d like to go back to normal.  You’d love to see your parents again, and your parents would love to see their grandchildren again.  You’d like to go on vacation.  You’d like to send your kids to camp over the summert. You’d like to feel secure out there again.  Or perhaps you’re on the frontlines and don’t feel that your work conditions are safe.  

We all want this virus gone, we all need to put food on our tables, we all want to see our friends in person and send our kids back to school and college.  Yet, our concerns express themselves in polarizing ways because we see different ways to get there.  Some are ok with social distancing, lockdowns, and mouthguards in public in order to help flatten the curve.  Others are urgently concerned about their financial situation and the curtailing of their freedom.  They are two sides of the same coin.  

What’s striking about this virus is that each one of us could unknowingly carry the virus for two weeks, or carry it without ever developing symptoms, and unintentionally infect dozens and even hundreds of others during that time.  That makes each one of us a crucial link in the effort to break the spread of the virus.  Each one of us on a worldwide basis is all of a sudden important in helping to prevent others from getting sick, to prevent the overwhelming of the healthcare system, the food system, the distribution networks.  We have already realized how dependent on foreign supply chains the world is - when too many people in China get sick, economies in many countries slow down.  When too many US meat plant workers get sick, Wendy’s runs out of hamburgers and the supermarkets have to ration meat purchases.  When the neighbor down the road parties, or heads to a crowded beach, her friends, her parents, the meat plant worker, or the supermarket cashier could get sick.

This pandemic is showing us the way from I to We.  No matter how you slice it or dice it, we’re in this together.