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Pan Magazine Winter 2008/9
Pantheism, unlike many other belief systems, provides its practi-tioners with an earthly understanding of how species cope withcrisis. As humans we sometimes separate ourselves from thenatural world, believing that the rules of nature do not apply tous. Fact of the matter is that what we require to survive are thevery same things that other species require – food, shelter, etc.So when you see a beaver’s dam destroyed after an entire seasonof work, or watch a child devastate an ant hill in the blink of aneye, you’ll quickly learn something about the natural world thatoften escapes the attention of the casual observer – that there isresilience, perseverance, endurance and relentlessness to rebuildthat which was lost or destroyed.In the animal world, self-pity simply does not exist, nor doesplaying the victim, in the hopes of others rushing in to rescue usfrom perils. This may sound harsh and unsympathetic, and I amnot suggesting that humans dismiss their compassionate charac-teristics, but it reminds us that the best medicine for times likethe ones we are in now is not to wallow in self-pity, but to startrebuilding immediately, after all what else is there to do.A few years back I was pruning some trees in my front yard,and despite my best efforts to avoid cutting any trees down, Idecided, with two young oaks being so close together, one wouldhave to go, so reluctantly I cut the smaller of the two oaks down,leaving nothing left but a stump that barely breached the sur-
face. Two weeks later there were about ve new limbs about
two feet long sprouting out from the stump. So I cut them all off,dug around the trunk and took off another two inches of trunk,but yet again, the treedecided that despitethe fact that it hadyears worth of growthremoved with thesweep of a chain saw,and that it would be atleast another ten yearsbefore it would evercome close to its former glory, its DNA code simply stated that itwould survive and therefore grow! This cycle, by the way, wenton three more times.A few months later 9/11 occurred. As a junior air line pilotin an industry that was bleeding to death, I found myself unem-
ployed in a eld where there were no jobs, and I mean none! I
remember sitting in the pilot lounge with about ten other pilots,all of them about to lose their jobs, and witnessing each of themexpress feelings of anger, sadness and fear of what laid ahead.I too was nervous about this new uncertain environment, andheaded home wondering what was plan “B”. As I walked frommy driveway I glanced over at the stump I had battled over andover again, and noticed that despite the fact that the growing sea-son was long over, it had shot out another sprout. A sprout that was absolutely pathetic, only about a half an inch long, all
curled up and twisted, but still, it was growing. I thought, doesn’t this tree get it? It was done, nished, just die already.
Then, as if the tree were speaking to me, I realized: I was the one who didn’t get it. The lessons for coping are providedby the Universe - we just need to know how to read them. Rule number One of the Universe: SURVIVE, Endure, Persevere,and do what ever it takes to grow no matter how pathetic the results may be. I turned around and look at what I had, andI had a lot, and then I thought about how much of my trunk had been cut, not much! So I went inside, and to my wife’ssurprise I greeted her with hope and enthusiasm, and with a genuine smile I explained to her, that everything was going to
be just ne, and it was.
James Cavanaugh
Learn resilience and endurance from Nature
“Rule number Oneof the Universe:Survive, Endure,Persevere, and do what ever it takes to grow”
Regrowth after wildre, Mesa Verde ©Paul Harrison 2008
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