My heart broke a little today.
Well,
Maybe quite a lot.
I took a walk down the lane to see Grace.
Grace stands guard over the edge of the river.
Her branches are adorned with ferns and there is a thick coating of ivy up her trunk.
If I could reach her higher branches,
I would be guaranteed to find evidence of all manner of life making her their home.
Grace is an ecosystem all on her own.
I worry about her.
We get more frequent floods and though her roots are strong,
She must feel the regular pounding of water on the riverbanks and the frequent overspill of water that gets too high to pass under the bridge she stands next to.
I hope that she is strong enough every time it rains hard.
I didn't always know her name.
One day I asked her and was greeted with silence.
I respected her choice.
I thanked her and turned to go home.
After about 30 paces,
My feet wouldn't move.
I was rooted to the spot until I acknowledged the word that had popped out of nowhere into my consciousness.
Grace.
She doesn't speak much,
But she doesn't need to.
Who she is speaks all that is necessary.
Today,
When I visited her,
I saw the roots of another big oak tree that had been pulled from the river after a flood.
It too had ferns attached to the trunk and it made me sad that a guardian had been lost.
I turned to place my hand on Grace's trunk and that's when my heart broke.
Someone had cut through every single ivy stem of her trunk.
Some of the cuts going through her bark as well.
This thick habitat that is a refuge for so many small animals and insects is going to die back.
The roots are intact so it will regrow,
But Grace had worked with the ivy to sustain that carpet across her trunk in harmony.
It was in perfect balance and all was well.
I could see that,
But someone with a saw could not.
This is a reflection of where we are in our relationship with the earth.
We see only what we know,
Not what we feel and sometimes not even what we know.
Logically,
A blanket of ivy might be considered a risk to the tree,
But intuitively that doesn't feel true in this case.
Intuitively,
I fear that oak-ivy harmony will fall out of balance as the ivy surges to regain ground over an already thick web of stems.
I hope Grace will be able to adapt and is not at risk because someone chose to disturb the equilibrium.
In a scientific world,
Space for intuitive knowing is impossible.
How can you quantify something that you know but cannot evidence?
Science looks for details,
Measurable systems,
Repeatable processes.
It zooms in and tries to apply the lessons to the whole.
But that's not how life works together.
The relationships and balance between beings are beyond the parameters of the dominant scientific approaches.
Appreciation of systems at an ecosystem and global level is not something we can measure because it's too big.
It is,
However,
Something we can feel intuitively.
We can feel the whole and how it works together.
Intuition is important for our survival.
It is our tool for understanding life itself.
We are built upon our intuition,
But in our noisy world,
Unless it is consciously cultivated,
It is silenced.
Intuition is our nature and how we understand nature.
We need to make it part of ourselves again because this is the only way we can learn to understand nature.
We need to make it part of ourselves again because this is the only way we can learn to let the earth heal itself.
The solutions to the mess we have made will come from nature.
As soon as you begin to listen to nature,
Your relationship to life and yourself changes in an instant.
We need this desperately for individual and global well-being.
We need each individual being in nature to be valued,
Not overlooked,
Dismissed,
Or even despised.
How we treat our environment is a direct reflection of how we treat ourselves and each other.
And where there is a disrespect of the earth,
There is disrespect of the self.
Our culture is nurturing this disrespect and we need to turn the tide.
We need to listen in equal measure to our intuition and nature.
Therein lies the path forward.
As one of our biggest drivers of environmental disrespect,
Business is the perfect place to restore this gentler,
More natural and human approach.
Intuition is a valuable business tool because it allows you to feel the whole,
Not just the processes and pieces.
It bestows a sense of identity and purpose on the act of working,
Creating and connecting.
It makes business whole.
It begins with giving yourself permission to listen to that wise soul within,
Who feels the flow of all life and knows how to live in harmony with all beings.
And once that conversation begins,
There will be no stopping it.
