I’ve been thinking alot lately about how much we humans are in the habit of ordering our world to our liking, and how upset we get when we don’t get our way. Even when it comes to our animals, we want it all our way, even convincing ourselves that the decisions we’re making are on the animal’s behalf, when in reality we are serving our own self-interest. We want everyone and everything to dance to our tune, to do our bidding.
Our secular culture of materialism supports and encourages us. Even the quasispiritual teachings of this new age tell us we can have what we want. What chance do we have of breaking free of this destructive mindset?
The secret, I’m discovering, lies in balance: The balance between the impulsion to create, to grow, to produce something useful, if not novel, and the need to be content, still, and at peace. And the balance between getting what we want and not getting it.
In a recent meditation, I wondered how the natural world of animals and plants and other creatures get what they want and handle it when they don’t get what they want. The answer was so very simple that I still can hardly take it in:
“How do you get what you want?” I asked.
“We go get it,” they replied.
“But what do you do when you don’t get it?” I asked.
“We don’t get it,” they replied.
“Yes, but what if you really want it?” I asked.
“Then we go get it,” they replied.
“Yes, but what if you don’t get it?” I asked.
“Then we don’t get it,” they replied.
On and on like that it went, until I gave up. It’s so obvious, so simple, so patently self-evident that I just couldn’t make it fit with the way I’m used to operating.
Yesterday, after a weekend of happy but tiring work in my garden, I stumbled upon another insight into this balance thing that I hadn’t been seeing: the importance of letting the natural world act upon me, at the same time as I’m acting upon it.
Hard to explain in words, but there is a dynamo effect of endless, renewing flow that feels like life itself which occurs when we both act and allow ourselves to be acted upon; to be changed, even as we are creating change. Which comes first? Does it even matter?
And what does this mean for the way we operate in the physical world, and how we relate to our animals, plants, and other nonhuman beings that we love or value? Still working on that...
More soon,
Dr. Chris King
Nature's Apprentice
www.animavet.com
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