Resilience - Nature's Call to Action
A reflection. Reflect with me, won’t you? I mean, you are also living this, so use your experiences of the last year-plus to reflect upon. I would love to read your reflections as well. We’re all in this together!!
When Washington’s Mount St. Helens, a genuine natural beauty, succumbed to the destructive elements of nature in May of 1980, scientists told a gloomy story of not only what had been destroyed, but also speculated on how long it would take nature to heal and restore the mountain to its former beauty. Of course, the size and the shape of the mountain was forever changed, but the flora and fauna would eventually return. Eventually. But, how many years, decades, or centuries would it take? Well, come to find out, the process began much sooner than scientists expected, as two weeks after the “big bang” scientists discovered small green shoots coming up in an area where all around was total destruction. Now, 41 years later, the mountain is still recovering, but nature’s resilience in the midst of destruction was unexpected, amazing … and inspiring.
Let’s bring this concept up to 2020 through today. You know what I’m talking about. The infamous Pandemic that shut the entire world down. Who ever thought that Disney World would go dark and silent for an entire year?
Because of the shutdown, people lost jobs, businesses, life savings, life-long dreams, and livelihoods. Because of the virus that caused the shutdowns, people lost loved ones. It was also devastating to our emotional wellbeing, as we were not able to go out and be the social creatures, living in relationship, that we were created to be. We were fearful, we were anxious, and we were isolated. Much like Mount St. Helens, there was destruction everywhere.
Let’s add on. In my part of the world, (and maybe yours as well), just before we all got “vaxed” and face masks and social distancing became “so 2020,” we looked out the window … hopefully, expectantly … for signs of spring. Here in Texas February can bring an early spring or it can kick us in the backside with more cold weather. Now, that “kick” might be a dusting of snow, or maybe some cold rain for a day or two at the most. Then, it’s all over and the trees bud and the birds sing. But not this year … not in 2021. We got a week-long hard, deep freeze that once again shut everything down … and not just for a day or two. The temperatures, at times in single digits and subzero for days set records, and the subsequent ice and snow damaged property, and killed plants and trees. IN TEXAS!! I mean, the Alamo and the Galveston coastline even became a Currier and Ives winter scene. Never thought I would see that! The Electricity and water for many people was out for days.
Then, the thaw brought even more devastation for property with burst pipes, and flooded homes, and who knows what else. What a “cap off” (crap off?) to a year of $#@%. Yet, only a few weeks later, after the dead vines and trees had been dug up or cut down to the dirt and cleared away, there emerged a new vine that was green and lush and winding its way up an empty framework that had been completely vine-covered only a few months before.
Now, as we step lightly into the summer of 2021, we’re seeing resilience everywhere. It’s a resurrection … new life … restoration. It’s a new normal, for although things have forever changed, life is now emerging and thriving once again. Businesses have reopened, new businesses are beginning, and we are returning to being social creatures. As a whole, we are a resilient people. And we can look to nature to inspire us to not remain in the abyss, but to climb out … and climb higher than ever before.
Resilience. Nature’s call to action.
But that’s nature. What about the human spirit? How do humans heal and restore after trauma and devastation? It’s not easy, but if we look to nature as a resource, the lesson is there. We don’t all recover in the same way in the same amount of time. Some of us never recover, choosing instead to remain in the deep dark pit, remaining in fear and anxiety, re-living pain and trauma over and over again, digging deeper into the abyss rather than digging out. However, some choose to build a stairway out of the abyss, using the stones, sticks, clay and dirt that they have right there as “tools” to work together to climb out and climb higher. In no does this negate trauma and deep emotional wounds, and in no way will one ever be the “same.” But, time and healthy processing bring us to a point in which the trauma and fear no longer dominate and control us, shrink us, or dictate to us how we will live our life.
So, how do we “be” resilient? What resourcefulness is deep within us that looks for the rocks and stones to build a stairway? How do we access that? There is no definitive answer, as far as I’m concerned. That’s why I like to say that I am “resilient-ing.” Even though the word “resilient” is more of a description of one’s very core character, the act of being resilient over and over again is … well, I like to make it active … ongoing … because it is. Addicts often say that they are recovering, because recovery is a never-ending process of learning, wisdom gathering, wounding and healing, and walking with others through their own woundedness. The act of being resilient is much the same. It is an everyday self-awareness, an everyday challenge, and an everyday call to action. And that’s just to get started!
So, what are your thoughts and experiences on resiliency, and resilienting? Reflect with me, won’t you?
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Information about Mount St. Helen’s from an article in The University of Washington Magazine, “After the Ashes,” March 2020. The article is an excerpt from the book After the Blast: The Ecological Recovery of Mount St. Helens by Eric Wagner.