#95
Taking Our Lead From Nature
We have so much to learn from nature. This week I watched a short documentary which was surprisingly uplifting, given its topic. The documentary is called “Let Things Rot”. (*link below)
We normally talk about growth, not decomposition. But as this short film clearly demonstrates, one necessitates the other.
The footage is exquisitely shot, and the narrator is so full of passion for her subject, that you can’t help but be swept along.
She maintains that the tree’s most generous offering is when it falls, breaks down, and creates the conditions for new growth. From the forest floor fungi take over and flourish. This in turn magically transforms wood into rich, life-giving soil.
It is a truth I have observed many times in life. As humans we bump into some life-event that brings us to our knees. It might be a break-up, illness, a death. Loss comes in many forms.
When I see a beautiful tree has fallen my immediate reaction isn’t ‘How exciting, this will create new life’.
Similarly how many times have you been told to ‘look for the gift’ when tragedy strikes? It can be very annoying!
The thing is that it isn’t always obvious. The gift takes a while to take form and be visible. Furthermore we need time to sit with the loss, feel the emotions, make the adjustments necessary and ultimately gain fresh insights to create our new reality.
We can dispassionately observe the decomposition of a tree and we know there is a time-line, with various stages, before new life comes.
Give yourself that time. Time to accept, to grieve, to adjust to a new reality. In the breakdown of our old reality, the decomposition of elements of life as we knew it, there will emerge the conditions for new life. A life with riches that weren’t there before.
It can be hard to trust in the process, especially when you are going through it. But take it from nature, fresh growth will emerge and be abundant.
Here is the link to the award-winning, gorgeously shot 7-minute documentary “Let Things Rot”
I will never look at a forest floor in quite the same way!
