“I am one with nature. We are all connected.”
March is an awakening: I notice the buds on the tree in my front yard my heart sings ‘spring is coming’! After the seemingly long and restful winter, before our eyes things are changing, coming alive. We eat plants and some animals, but don’t give much thought to the cycles of life when we do. The ways in which these cellular beings help us grow and thrive. They provide medicine, food, shelter, they stabilize life. I think most of us can agree that we are connected to this animal kingdom but what about the plant world? Plants, trees and everything living in nature has an intelligence, a knowing. The trees know what they need, roots seek out water and they will bend and contort themselves to find light. They lean on one another, and even grow out of one another, a system known as nurse trees and logs. In the forrest when a tree dies, it decays and gives back to the ecosystem in perfect harmony. We are all cellular beings, but humans have a brain, and a thinking process that advances us and separates us from other life. But does this “thinking brain” get in our way of truly living? Have we as humans become disconnected from the planet and natural life?
Grade school science teaches us about plant reproduction and just like humans, there is female (pistals) and male (stamens). They have sex organs like us! We also share in a symbiotic relationship in the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide with the plant world; without plants and trees, there is no us.
Have you ever tried talking to your plants? Research is showing that plants can actually hear:
“Plants probably don’t hear like we do,” says Dr Dominique, biophilia expert and lead researcher at Horticulture Innovation Australia’s plant life Balance. “But some research shows that speaking nicely to plants will support their growth, whereas yelling at them won’t.” Rather than the meaning of words, however, this may have more to do with vibrations and volume. Plants react favourably to low levels of vibrations, around 115-250hz being ideal. To get close to plants, to watch and listen, we begin to feel the connections we have nature, and with each other. We are all connected.
“Whenever you bring your attention to anything natural, anything that has come into existence without human intervention you step out of the prison of conceptualized thinking and, to some extent, participate in the state of connectedness with Being in which everything natural still exists. To bring your attention to a stone, a tree, or an animal does not mean to think about it, but to simply perceive it, to hold it in your awareness. Something of it’s essence then transmits itself to you. You can sense how still it is, and in doing so the same stillness arises within you. You sense how deeply it rests in Being~ completely at one with what it is and where it is. In realizing this, you too come to a place of deep rest within yourself.” Eckhart Tolle
Simple ways to feel more connected to nature this month:
- Get out into nature and notice! Rather than walking and talking away with a friend (which is amazing, don’t get me wrong), get quiet and notice what’s around you. Even if it’s for a few minutes. Notice the sounds and smells. THIS is happening now, and YOU are a part of it!
- Hug a tree. Literally.
- If you don’t have house plants, get one….and take care of it mindfully. If you have plants, take the time to talk nicely to them, when you water and feed them do it with intention and love.
- When you eat the fruits/ vegetables of plants, think about where they came from and notice how you feel.
- Plant seeds. Water them. Watch them grow.
- Notice how you feel after getting outside in the fresh air. Notice your energy levels before and after.
Written by Nicole Whitman. Photo taken at Loon Lake in Maple Ridge by Saige Carlson.