Nature, nurture, rhythm...

Oct 26, 2009

Fall is upon us. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I’m going to do some riff on the Beatles song about there being a season for everything…turn, turn, turn…

No. Not today at least.

As I was driving home from the Obesity Help conference in Rye Brook, NY this weekend I was admiring the fall leaves. It was all so beautiful. Layers and layers and layers of leaves in burnt orange, brown, sage green, even purple.

As I glowered at this spectacle of nature I began to think of how disharmonious we humans are with nature. It seems we do all we can to extract ourselves from the natural rhythm of nature.

Let nature be an example. All winter long trees are bare. The branches, long upstaged by the beauty of its leaves and flowers in spring, summer and fall, are the center of attention. Unhindered by their loads, they stand erect, tall, proud. As the weather warms, however, they acquiesce, and allow themselves to be impregnated by buds which burst forth into those leaves and flowers, whose appearance is what usually captures our human attention. We don’t pay enough credence to the tenacity of bare trees—they are strong and beautiful.

And the leaves. They appear in the spring—sturdily attached to their anchor, brightly colored, waxy, and soon they bear fruit. They are the jewel of the tree and they live in the spotlight for months and months…until the weather turns cool. Then, with nary a protest, they let go, allowing themselves to become unattached to the tree, falling to the ground, withering and, eventually, dying. They don’t complain. They don’t whine. And even in their death they are beautiful. So instead of focusing on the end of their life, leaves exemplify the beauty of the life cycle, a wonder we hardly notice as we grumble and rake them into piles and stuff them into black plastic bags.

We humans, however, we are very different. We seek to control our own cycles. We want to decide how often and when we menstruate (instead of being harmonious with moon cycles as nature seems to want us to be). We seek to control our appetites, our aging process, our hair color, our skin color, our eye color, our scents, our skin textures.

Some of this is for the good of man, no doubt, but I wonder how much of it. As humans we are animals, a species of animal, that is built in perfect harmony with nature. I wonder to myself what might become of us if we give ourselves over to the natural rhythms that are programmed within us. They are our default settings—our metabolism, our reproductive cycles, our aging cycles, our pigmentation, our hunger, our thirst.

This week I want to get more in touch with my natural rhythm. I often cloud it in what I feel I should think, feel and like. Instead I want to study what I am wont to do, instead of what I WANT to do. If you don’t know what that means…I challenge you this week to find out and then message me your thoughts.

Have a great week.

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