“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

~Leonard Cohen

September 6, 2020

Nature’s Lessons on Emotional Health

On a recent hike on Mount Rainier, I was struck by the sight of this tree stump shaped in the image of a heart with a crack at its center. I wondered what story it had to tell me about it’s life. I marveled at the ability of nature to speak to us so clearly through beauty and form. On some level I know this tree’s story. I have felt it’s story in my own. We have all felt it’s story in our own. Our collective hearts are breaking and we are in need of the light to enter in.

This year has been full of global heartbreak. At a time when we need each other the most, as we are struggling with the greatest social division many of us have seen in our lifetimes, we must maintain physical distance from one another in order to keep ourselves and our communities safe. So many issues crowd our hearts and minds. We are in the midst of an untamed worldwide pandemic that at the time of this writing has cost 880,000 lives worldwide. In the US, we are nearing 200,000 lives lost, a number we thought unfathomable only a few months ago. We are in the midst of a racial justice crisis that is unearthing layers of pain and denial and demanding attention to and reconciliation for issues affecting black lives and persons of color and indigenous cultures in the US as well as throughout the globe. We are facing climate change at a rapidly growing rate that is seen in natural phenomenon across the globe - increased storm and wildfire frequency and intensity, rapidly melting icecaps and rising waters, craters caused by methane explosions underground, and biodiversity diminishing daily. And in the midst of this, we have our personal struggles, whether they be grief and loss, anxiety, depression, trauma, financial hardship, etc. and how are we to hold it all?

Many health authorities warn against watching the news as the daily reports fuel emotion dysregulation and social division. And yet ignorance is not the answer either - not at a time in which so much healing and action is needed. We live in a culture in which productivity expectations and perfectionism ideals are rampant. These norms are fueling mindlessness and expanding our emotional pain and yet it would appear to most that we shouldn’t back off or slow down because so much needs to be done. So how do we deal with it all while taking care of ourselves and our loved ones?

Perhaps nature has an answer here if we listen closely. Sustainability. Yin and yang cycles. Growth and dormancy to store up for new growth again. Take the example of the stump in the wild. Trees are communities connected by deep underground networks of roots. These communities continue to supply water and nutrients to stumps to keep them alive and to maintain the health of the whole. Stumps contribute to the community long after the tree has died through providing for vast biodiversity, the ongoing creation of nutrients for the soil through decay, and by maintaining the root systems which provide for continued sustenance for the whole community.

What questions does this brokenhearted stump bring up for us? How do we honor the lessons of the past to inform our futures? How can we tend to our own individual and collective emotional pain in order to learn and grow rather than ignore or avoid it because it hurts? What do we need to let go of in order to nurture our future? How can we remain connected as a whole in order to sustain and be sustained? How do we allow the light to enter in through the cracks in our armor?

Wishing you peace and well-being,

Christie