Nuts!

Hiking through the parkway I often came upon sections of the path that appeared to be gravel or stone but on further inspection were actually the remains of shells from various nut trees. I mean there were a lot. We're not talking dozens, or hundreds, but more like thousands of various nuts or shells dropped by the trees or pitched by crazed squirrels. And not just on the paths, they were spread in all directions around the perimeter of the trees. That got me to wondering about what would the world look like if I every nut and every seed that ever dropped started growing? Well, in some places it would be welcome and quite lovely and in others I'm sure it could be quite devastating and. Imagine every Maple seed growing in every gutter and every crack in every sidewalk. I am very sure we would have a big problem in short order. I started thinking a lot about those nuts that dropped and started wondering if there was a parallel between them and us as being and/or our ideas as we move through life and here's what occurred to me. I have to assume that most of those nuts never make it to maturity as a full-grown tree just as many of us or our ideas never make it either physically, mentally or emotionally to full maturity. Some of us, like them, are consumed by the world in one way or the other before we even get started and are lost. Some of us like them start growing but our life's are cut short by various circumstances whether it's a lack of basic needs or a poor or dangerous environment (Think Maslow here). Some of us get a good start and grow quite well and are lost to accidents or changes in our environments. And some of us actually make it to some level of maturity in various degrees of completeness. Just like us you'd be hard-pressed to find a mature tree without some wrinkles, cracks, scars or missing pieces. Most people don't think twice about cutting down weeds, bushes, or trees when it serves their purpose and unfortunately there have been people in the world and still are that don't think twice about cutting down people (physically or emotionally) when it serves theirs. So it seems that Mother Nature's plan is to throw a lot of seed at the ground and hope enough of it finds a fertile and safe environment. I wonder if Mother Nature has any attachment to any particular species or if like a good Buddhist just sits back and accepts what unfolds with no attachment to the outcome. I can't imagine the pain she would feel at the loss of every plant and tree.

I'm not trying to cast any judgment here one way or the other but, just providing food for thought. The researchers in psychology say that pattern recognition and empathy are parts of emotional intelligence. And if you studied psychology or EI at all you realize that while it seems like common sense, it's clearly not common practice. So before I finish up here and lest you be saying what's the big deal they're just nuts or trees you really can't equate them to people. I would leave you with two thoughts. First, that for many people of the world every creature and thing has a spirit or fundamental life force. The Algonquin groups of native Americans call it Manitou. And each of those spirits or life forces are part of gitche manitou "The Great Spirit". This might all sound familiar as Prana, Qi, Ki, Spiritus, Astral Light, or even the Force.
And second, as we are on a path to explore the lessons that nature has for us it doesn't mean that we have to accept everything we see. But it does mean that like a nut that desires to grow into something more, we must open ourselves to the world.

In the beginning...

One of my favorite places to spend my time is in and around the woods. As of late I've been hiking a considerable amount and truth be told, sometimes I rather enjoy just finding a quiet spot to sit and just watch my thoughts drift by. If you've read any of my earliest posts you may possibly find this a bit redundant. In any case, one of my goals while sitting quietly in the woods was to stay until I learned (or remembered) something. It was a pretty passive situation in that I wasn't forcing anything. Just trying to be present for whatever was there. I just looked listened and let it happen. Invariably, I would see something, or notice something, or something would happen that would cause a light bulb to go off. OK, not always a big light bulb, but at least a candles worth. Maybe some kind of a recollection or a knowing from eons past. Usually, something so basic that you would think it was coded in our DNA but not to worry because if you had "eyes to see", you'd be hard pressed to miss it.

So in the beginning… you know back before Stephen Colbert, before David Letterman, before Al Gore's Internet, before TV, before radio, before books, before tablets (the stone kind not the Samsung) somebody was figuring things out for the first time and probably there were many somebodies all over the planet since news didn't travel that fast. I'm thinking those somebodies learned pretty much everything they needed to know by observing others and nature and while it's pretty easy at this point for you to say "no kidding", the reality is that just like common sense isn't common practice, we all "know" about the basics. But we don't very often practice them. So, I think that that will be the underlying message or carrier wave of my writing here. My mission here will focus on identifying and teasing out those little bits of basic knowledge from daily life and sharing them with you all in the hope that somewhere along the way it makes a difference in the quality of your life and or relationships. It has become obvious that many gurus, sages, experts, religious, etc. deliver similar teachings albeit with different words. I can only assume that they draw their wisdom from the same pool. I think that we all have access to that pool. We don't need to be 90 years old to understand it and maybe the best part is that we don't need to go on a very long hike to find it. In fact, we don't really need a hike at all. We can pretty much sit down anywhere and look at almost any scene and eventually those little lessons are going to come through.
I hope you give it a try sometime and feel free enough to share you thoughts.