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Today's
Quotation:
All of
nature offers lessons on living, free of charge. One
morning I noticed a dead tree supporting many living
things--fungus, vines, lichen--which taught me that even
after death we can continue to support those who live on.
Living trees on our property teach other lessons. One
tree has grown around a barbed wire fence. Another has
grown around a nail, and a third through a chain link
fence. These trees teach me how to accept irritation,
absorb the pain and grow around problems. Nature teaches
me how to find my place, grow toward the sunlight and
bypass obstacles. To survive, we must be able to change
in response to whatever is required by the challenge of
the moment. Our bodies know this,
but our minds often
rebel when change is necessary.
Bernie S. Siegel |
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Today's
Meditation:
Resilience
and adaptation. These are qualities that can be quite
beneficial to us, but which we tend to struggle greatly
with. First of all, we tend to do our best to avoid
situations in which we need to show these qualities, for
they're very often unpleasant. Why do we need to show
our ability to adapt unless someone's put some barbed wire
in our way? Why do we need to adapt unless we need to
grow around a nail or through a chain link fence? If
someone does put an obstacle in the way of the direction in
which we're growing, we tend to complain a lot before we
even think of adapting to the new obstacle. We tend to
say it's not fair, and the obstacle should be removed!
Unfortunately, I think, we far too often succeed in removing
the barrier before we ever have to learn how to grow around
it, and we end up learning nothing from a potentially great
learning opportunity. We
can learn from the trees who stand their ground day after
day, just doing what trees do. They grow to be strong
but flexible, and it's not their strength that allows them
to withstand severe storms, but their flexibility.
When they meet an obstacle, they grow slowly but surely
around it, without a single complaint (that we know of,
anyway!) This
moment requires something from you, be it patience,
understanding, strength, courage, or something else.
There are examples of all these things to be found in the
natural world, role models for us to learn from and to take
valuable lessons from. The lessons are there for us,
but the question is whether or not we see and accept them. |
