Natural
Teacher
“But
watching the winter water of a stream begin to thaw and flow, over
and over, I finally saw that to make it through the pain, I had to be
more like water and less like ice.”
Mark
Nepo (The Book of Awakening)
It
is animal nature to resist pain. We simply think about pain, whether
emotional or physical, and feel our bodies tense up. We may say, “I
don't want to think about that,” or “I don't want to talk about
that,” because simply acknowledging it seems to amplify the
anguish. Our inclination is to pull in, tighten up, and brace against
it; like putting on chain mail, or armor, we go into defensive mode.
Most animals will run away if they can, and so do we.
When
we look at the rest of nature, however, the kind that can't run away,
that seems not to overlay reality with strong emotions, we find it
yielding. The frozen river slows its flow beneath the ice, and melts
with the sun. A fallen tree grows lichen and moss and whole new
generations of lacy ferns. A stump may put up new shoots from its
roots. I have a fig tree in my back yard that is in its third
generation of new-shooting. Leaves do not resist the wind. We
can learn from these beings.
There
is quote by Robert Frost: “The best way out is through.” When we
can breathe, and release, and allow the discomfort to flow, whatever
it is, we give our body/mind permission to lay down its weapons and
go in peace. By admitting the truth of our reality, we lessen the
intensity of it, and allow it to thaw and heal. Nature is a teacher
of deep lessons if we have ears to hear, and eyes to see.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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