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Lessons From the Garden #96:
"True Leaves" ~ Lytingale - April, 2007
| The seed packet instructed me to sow a lot of seeds, then thin them after the first true leaves had appeared. Wow! What metaphors that brought to my consciousness! When we are first starting out in life, it’s helpful to experiment and explore... to sow a lot of seeds and see what sprouts up. Our son is currently studying (and I use that term loosely) in Scotland; from there he’ll go on a trip to China, and he’ll study in Washington, D.C. in the fall. He’s exploring and experimenting, and this is a great time for him to do it. He’s not sure “what he wants to be when he grows up.” Many of us are still trying to figure that out, and perhaps we need to sow more seeds in our life’s garden and see what comes up for us. If you’re wondering where to go from here, experiment in new directions. Now this is not an invitation to do anything illegal, terribly reckless, or otherwise self-defeating. You don’t necessarily need to quit your day job! But if you’re paying attention, there are lots of ways to say “yes” to the opportunities that life brings to you... take a class, plan a trip, go out and play, try something new and see where it leads you. You may be surprised what you will learn in unexpected places. (And if you don’t like the place it leads, leave!) I’ve had several short-term jobs in my life, and at the time, I wasn’t sure why I was there. But I found that I always learned a little something that would be helpful later on. Our life is a journey... but the road is rarely straight, so enjoy those curves! They add a rich flavor to the experience. Now the next step was to thin out the extras to give the “keepers” more space. As my closets and our basement can attest, I’m not very good at thinning out. I tend to cling to every single thing that comes into my life. The result is a contrast struggle to keep the clutter at bay. I’m working on it (hmm.... perhaps I should be “playing” with it instead?) Perhaps I have done the same with ideas... about my self, about how the world works, about what life’s about. If an idea no longer serves you well, do you thin it out? Or does it just crowd your mind and stunt your growth? And what about that “to do” list? Am I driving myself crazy trying to do all of it... or can I prioritize and thin out the list to get back to what is essential, to what feeds my soul. As the saying goes, don’t get so caught up doing the “merely important” that you forget the “essential.” Back to our seedlings... When we first begin to grow, we are unformed and new. We are undifferentiated possibility, waiting to happen. We have not yet grown into our “true leaves.” Each one of us is put on the planet as a unique expression of God energy. Every person has their own vision of what this life is, their own set of talents and skills, and a set of beliefs formed by their own experiences. Even identical twins go on to have different lives! From the moment you left the womb, you have experienced life in your own, unique way. We each look different; we see, touch, taste, smell, and hear things differently. So why do so many of us spend our lives trying to “fit in”?!!! Shakespeare told us, “To thine own self be true.” Who do we love to watch on TV? The larger-than-life characters who really express their unique essence, who aren’t afraid to be themselves. One TV network even has the slogan “Characters Welcome.” You know what? We don’t need more imitations of celebrities. We need YOU! Chad recently bought a wonderful T-shirt at Mast General Store that says “Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting.” What a succinct statement of the malaise that often infects so many of us! Are you really tired, or are you “tired of...” trying to be what you’re not? What would it be like to be comfortable in your own skin... to weed out ideas that don’t nurture us... to let go of models that don’t fit us... to let ourselves express the essence of who we are deep inside? Sounds like a garden that would bloom! Listen to the song that the universe is singing your heart. Who are you... really? How do you want to put life into your years? Grow into your “true leaves” - push up out of the dirt, reach up & drink in the sunshine, and stretch toward the light. You are a beloved child of God. You are wanted here on Planet Earth.... there are things that only you can do and be. They may not be big things; they may or may not make you rich or famous, but if you do them with great love and conviction, they will make you contented and at peace with yourself. Go out and play with life! I can’t wait to see who you are when you grow up! --Lytingale |
| Lessons From the Garden
#97:
" Differentiation"~ Lytingale -
June, 2007
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Why does it seem so darn comfortable to hang out with people who are just like us... when the Universe is quite definitely built on differentiation?
I guess I’d better go back to the beginning. I got to thinking about the cycle of human life... how we come from oneness, play around exploring our differences, then melt back into oneness. And without differences, none of that can happen.
At the biological level, in the beginning, there is one cell, waiting inside a womb. If that one cell is graced with the chance to experience a life, then it is fertilized... its first experience of “other”, of something different entering its boundaries. And then the fun begins... it divides, re-creating itself in many different forms, that become wondrous things like legs, and eyes, and a liver, and skin, and blood. If the cells did not become different from each other, there would be no human body.
Once the cells have chosen to be a specific type of cell, they remain that type.... except for those magical ones called “stem cells.” That’s what all the fuss is about... stem cells keep their ability to become whatever they need to be, which has amazing implications for medical purposes... as well as being prime candidates for metaphysical metaphor!
Ahem, getting back on the topic, the cells keep replicating and differentiating (doesn’t that sound scientific?!), until they’ve formed the collection of a 10-100 trillion cells we call a human body... ready to divide away from its mother to be born. One human body, many different cells.
That human comes to think of itself as “one body,” as “self” and all the other collections of cells as “other.” We are taught to see differences more than the sameness that lies underneath.
The Human Genome Project’s discovery that we are genetically 99% alike really blew some folks’ paradigms... especially when the Genographic Project traced human migration with DNA evidence and found that all of our descendants came from a common ancestor 65,000 years ago, who lived in (oh, my!) central Africa. Kinds knocks that “purity of the races” propaganda right out the window. (Do you hear God laughing?)
“Genetic genealogy” has now begun: for only $119, you can trace the migration of one side of your ancestors with a “Standard Paternal or Maternal Ancestry Package.” (I’m not sure how relevant it will be to your present-day happiness, but it’s probably a lot healthier for you than gambling or jumping out of airplanes.)
Now, where did I lay that topic down? (This is getting to be like trying to find my glasses or car keys!) Oh, yes, once we were one, then we became many to create a body, that we then thought of as one, out in a world of many. But now we find out that all the many’s are actually one underneath; we just forget (or ignore) that we are all made of the same stuff at the cellular level.
And if we are open to remembering oneness, perhaps we will fall in love... and try our best to put two together in a way that feels almost like one.... occasionally with the result of another whole dance of replication and differentiation, creating a new being who is both you and I, yet not you or I. (If you have a teenager, you’ll know what I mean.)
And eventually, my many-celled body will die... ashes to ashes, dust to dust... the handful of tissues that are no longer enlivened by Spirit crumble away and return to the oneness that is the earth. We come from spirit, live in a body of dust and bone for a time, then return to the oneness of Spirit form. And the dance goes on.
Do I have a point? (I think I lost it somewhere near my car keys.) Aha!
My mama used to say, “It takes all kinds to make a world.” And without all those different kinds, the world would be a lot less interesting... if it could even exist at all. Differentiation is the way of Mother Nature. So why fight it? Enjoy it! Take it all with a grain of salt and a large dose of humor. Avoid being sucked into seriousness more than once a day.
The world is full of incredible diversity... from the diversity of the cells that make up our bodies... to the myriad people living in this world – with all their sizes, shapes, colors, philosophies, opinions, religions, foods, dress codes, voices, taste in music, foods, fingerprints, footprints.... you name it!
The French say “Vive la difference!” Celebrating our differences rather than fighting about them is the only real hope for peace on the planet. (If you want to be a diplomat, first prove that you can live with a teenager. It’s good training.)
We come from the One. We return to the One. In between, let’s enjoy the many!
--Lytingale Together we suffer, together exist, and forever will recreate each other." ~ Pierre Teilhard De Chardin |
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