“Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it, how still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.” — Eckhart Tolle
I just returned from my yearly relaxing, writing, pondering retreat in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada. I get my best rejuvenation and greatest insights when I’m surrounded by nature and immersed in its authentic being and beauty.
Consider the many lessons we can learn from a flower.
A flower is truly present and centered in its being. From its origin as a seed, it allows the life force to move through it to unfold its natural blueprint.
A flower trusts it will be provided for, that it will receive the temperatures, air, water, sunshine and nutrition it needs to grow. Then it does its best with what it is given. It may be a rainy or dry season, or it may encounter physical damage from animals or humans or bad soil. Without complaint, the flower follows its destiny. The stronger the wind, the stronger the stem.
A flower doesn’t force the growth process. It accepts the pace of germinating, sprouting, developing, budding and flowering. It allows time to reveal its beauty. Nor does it resist the inevitable disintegration that completes the cycle.
A flower lives in the NOW. It has no concern for the past or future.
And finally – and this was so powerful for me — a flower doesn’t question or agonize about what it is. If it is a rose, it doesn’t wish it were a daisy. It does not judge other flowers or its host plant or you and me the observers. It minds its own business, content to participate in its own self-expression and radiate its unique and incredible beauty.
This was the insight that struck home for me: “To stop aspiring to be someone I am not.”
Of course, human life is much more complex than that of a flower. But does it have to be as complex as we make it? May we choose to adopt the rhythm and acceptance of nature?
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” — Albert Einstein
“When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.” -– Byron Katie
