Are you a nomad? Do you have roots? How’s your adaptability?

Join me, if you will, in a few thoughts about nature. It’s on the front burner today, with no pun intended in much of the Northern Hemisphere.

Perhaps you reside in a metropolis. With a pet cat or a plant on your windowsill. Outside your apartment building there’s a tree growing out of a square cut out of the sidewalk.

Or maybe you live in a forest. By a lake, river, or stream. In some idyllic rural hamlet surrounded flora and fauna of all kinds. You’re face-to-face with every shift of the seasons.

Somewhere in between is suburbia. A master-planned landscape that looks like a circuit board from space. Critters from the former countryside sometimes encounter the plants and pets in your garden.

Wherever you’re planted, there’s some amount of nature in your surroundings. But unlike the other living things around you, you have a degree of agency that they do not.

Where I’m going with this circles back to the quote from my brother at the top. You’ve got to make the best for yourself in the context of wherever you happen to be.

It’s an interesting metaphor. We can move around until we find an ideal setting. We can enrich the soil we grow in by learning and community building. We can choose a livelihood that lets our soul flower. Even under duress, we have some capacity to choose how we react in the moment.

One way to bloom where you are planted is to see yourself in partnership with your environment. Since we human critters have more leeway than most to move around, dance, and play, we can be collaborators, stewards, and facilitators in helping our natural neighbors thrive.

The current canicule (heat wave) in France has had us hopping around the yard and garden in helper-mode, hose in hand. The bugs, the bees, and especially the baby birds seem really grateful when we provide a bit of moisture in the shade. A light spray of water on the hedges around sunset relieves the leaves and cools everything down for the evening.

Maybe the most you can do is mist that plant in the window. Reframe care as collaboration and notice the difference. Since you’re the one who can do it, step up as a partner and enjoy the dance!

Merci et à bientôt!

M+

ML #688

Mark Metz
Monday Love Movement Calendar