I love gardening, it relaxes me. I walk into my garden, caress the leaves, look at new buds, pull up weeds and make room for new growth.
The very first time I planted a seed in the ground, I killed the sprout before it had even had a chance to fully make its way out of the soil. I was attempting to transplant it to early, too much upheaval too soon.
You live and you learn.
Sometimes when I am spending quality time with my plants I think to myself. “How incredible, they know where the sun is, they push up and out and get on with it.” They go through very visible and natural cycles. I am beginning to think that we do too.
Most of us have been taught about life from a linear perspective. The thought process that has been deeply ingrained in us is that 1 +1 = 2 right? You input all the data and follow the given formula and everything should add up perfectly. But there is something wrong with this equation, if this linear approach is correct then why do we continue to circle back to the same point of learning, feeling a sense of deja vu.
There have been countless times that I have come back to the same problem or found myself staring at the same issue, the same lesson and thought HOW did I get here AGAIN? Frustrated and a bit embarrassed, I would think, “Am I just going around in circles?” After all we have been taught that if the lesson has been truly learned there is no need to revisit. We have been made to believe that if you come back to the same lesson, it is you who contains the error. Because in linear learning once you ace the test there is no need to take it again, there is no need to revisit. You have learned your lesson. Move on. 1+1 = 2.
We have become so focused on having the right answers and answering the question correctly that we have integrated our ability to get it “right” with how we measure our value and self-worth. And so when we struggle or come back to the same point of learning, we get angry and embarrassed and we ask “how did I get here?!” We hide or shift the blame, we shove it under the rug and refuse to look at the problem, been there- done that. Move on and try to learn from it. But what is there really to move on from? What if we decide to experience it with a sense of detachment and observe what was not seen before.
Surely this linear approach to learning is not the only way that we can develop ourselves and deepen the understanding of what it means to live an enriched life. Perhaps the flowers have it right, learning can be more cyclical with us moving upward towards understanding through periods of dormant growth (nothing is seen on the outside but deep within there is progress being made.) Active growth ( visible activity that can be seen, lessons being learned, pages being written, sprouts being sprung) and then Blossoming ( the fruition of work, greater understanding, a flower in full bloom, a first draft.) And then it all repeats, again and again. Same soil, same plant, same OR different result but that’s okay. New lessons are being learned and understanding of who we are is deepened.
When we begin to see learning as a cyclical concept, we can revisit the same lesson or problem and instead of deciding that we are a failure for arriving to the same place we would instead think there is more to explore here, this is a rich soil the perfect breeding ground for wherever it is I am in this life, at this moment, and I will take a breath here.
Perhaps exploring a question with no right or wrong answer in sight, is a way to deepen the lesson, a way to understand not only one concept but how it applies to others, the spiral effect.
All the energies moods and emotions xx