I wish I were intelligent enough to think and be like this woman all the time. But I think I am too shallow, too into the moment to be to that deep in thought? Although when I read her essay and listen to her TedTalk, it all makes such sense and flows through me like I think and feel like this all the time. An 'alternate me" that lives in another universe while I am busy in this world being harsh and empty, obessesive and infatuated with "things". Just like many things in my life, I fear that I will figure it all out too late, after I don't have any more time to live in that realm. Changing Our Self-Perception As A Compassionate Deed For The World essay on Joseph Campbell Foundation, whom I love!
One of the world’s top trend forecasters, Kristina Dryza, explores nature’s living wisdom in this new issue of The David Report. Kristina asserts that rhythm is the keynote of nature and is fundamental to wellbeing. Not just a sign of life – rhythm is life. She writes that we often forget our body is part of the body of nature and it’s when we reference, embrace and embody the seasonal, circadian, lunar and tidal energies that we invite their wisdom to become our own. We stop breaking ourselves against the laws of nature and instead awaken to the rhythm of all things.
You can view the entire essay on this magazine, issu
How to think mythically and sense archetypally to better understand our shared humanity, yet honour the diverse ways we live and make meaning. Australian-born Lithuanian Kristina Dryza is recognised as one of the world’s top female futurists and is also an archetypal consultant and author. Kristina has always been fascinated by patterns for she feels we are patterned beings in a patterned universe. She writes and speaks about the patterning of seasonal, tidal, lunar and circadian rhythms and their influence on creativity, innovation and leadership. She also explores archetypes and mythology to perceive the patterns in the collective unconscious and their expression within our psyches, society and media.
Here is a sample of the essay: Nature’s living wisdom
Nature as the changing and the changeless
Nature blooms, flourishes, withers, dies, reblooms and we also go through these same processes. By reading patterns in nature – and in ourselves – we recognize the changing and the changeless. The subtle is often the colossal. We must learn to perceive those soft and understated distinctions like changes in the air, the amount of light in the sky, a person’s facial reactions, messages our body gives us and our inner guidance. They all prophesy the future. When we partner with the faint and the hushed we’re in accord with the wholeness of life. The gross and the obvious are a dictatorship that force us into a position of reaction, but in subtlety there is great power and choice. We mustn’t mistake it as weak and insignificant.
Many types of patterns exist in nature: random, regular, alternating, flowing, progressive, and within them variation and contrast are crucial. We monitor these patterns of energy because when we’re aware of them, it’s easier to sense the pulse of life, the heartbeat of creation.
Because all things in nature exist in their own strength, they bring an irreplaceable essence to the world. Each element is in harmony with the moment. Change does and doesn’t happen overnight; some flowers bloom in the blink of an eye, while others unfurl at a more gradual pace. We can’t hurry natural phenomena or outpace that which hasn’t opened yet. Growth doesn’t always happen at a rational speed. In our modern, fast-paced societies we have a false expectation that life should perennially be in bloom instead of existing in cycles of rising and setting. Look at a garden and appreciate it as an evolving structure. Notice how it lets itself be influenced. It doesn’t contest the changes; the garden lets change guide and transform it.
The cycles of creation
Cycles contain growth spurts and stagnation, reminding us life is never static. Nature teaches us not to get too particularly attached to one phase, as another will soon appear. A cyclical view of life helps ground us, bringing much-needed perspective, yet it’s a sense of eternal perception that marries us to the rhythm of all things. Until the end of time the world will operate in cycles: we’re born, we die, it’s summer then it’s winter, life is never a straight line. When we perceive life cyclically it comforts us. If we think in a linear manner all we’re confronted with are dead ends.
Creation is ordered by rhythms and cycles, and there is order to all creation. Withering is still an expression of creation. It’s newness though that western society is preoccupied with: the latest fashion trends, the hottest technology gadget and this week’s most recent fad. There is enormous validity in the old and the aged. In all processes – including dying expressions – there rests and breathes great beauty. We could argue that the blossom isn’t truly resplendent as it hasn’t lived yet, it hasn’t begun to express its full magnificence out to the world, but both the blossoming, unrefined beauty of a teenager and an elderly lady’s deeply wrinkled face teach us to appreciate each stage of the cycle.
There’s nothing sadder than an older lady envying youth’s fairness or the teenager sacrificing her innocence before her time. Cherry blossoms in full bloom are dazzling but they’re equally stunning when they’ve blown off the trees and lay broken and trampled on the ground. The blossoms are in different stages of their beauty, of their growth and decline. Their essential gloriousness isn’t altered whether they’re being admired on branches or resting on the soil, crushed and ignored.
Nature is constant reinvention. Whether it’s presently born – or a step away from death – each element of the cycle contains expanding perfection. We fail to value the completeness of life when we focus only on one part, a solitary element of the whole. There is as much cheer in the first daffodils of spring as a rose in the frost clinging to its vanishing life. It’s necessary for us to celebrate both the fading and that yet to flourish.
Maybe feeling so philosphical today because I turn 66.
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