Nature's Rhythm

One afternoon, despite a long day and more work awaiting me, the garden was gently inviting me to enter. The lush leaves and thin stems beckoned me, “Come!” Nature’s seduction was irresistible. I sat there, surrounded by plants and quietness, feeling the occasional cool wisp of breeze. I could feel my heart was racing, tired and anxious. The juxtaposition of the stillness outwith me and the anxiety within me was jarring. The strange thing was that I could not feel my anxiety when I was among anxiety; I only noticed the anxiety when I was among tranquility. I looked around at my green companions, as if they were in a different world from me. I was fretting and the plants were nonchalantly swaying. Had they no sense of time? Had they nothing else to do?

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I inhaled as a reminder to myself to pause. I smiled at them who are more ancient than me! Plants know seasons way better than me and they are constantly ‘doing’ things, but at their own pace. They are working according to their innate nature and internal readiness. They do not bloom or produce fruit because they have a KPI (key performance indicator) to meet; they bloom because they have arrived. We make them produce fruit because we have a KPI to meet.

Nature has an unanxious and unhurried rhythm.

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