How Plants Perfectly Describe The Human Experience

At times it seems as if the world was designed solely to guide us to self-understanding. We're able to see ourselves in everything and conversely everything within ourselves. Through observation and meditation - the world completes us.

I've spent a lot of time attempting to expand my understanding of the human experience from the world around us and I've found that plants are the ripest source to discover oneself in.

Environment

Plants require just a few things to survive. Soil, water, and sunshine. In an ideal situation, each ingredient is available and provided in a way that allows a plant to take full advantage of them.

Whether its soil that's rich in nutrients or a prime location for water and sunlight, plants are very much affected by their environment. If the environment is suitable the plant will grow and thrive. If the environment is not suitable the plant will wither and die.

Ultimately, people experience the same reality.

People must be planted

The environment we are born into is the soil we are planted in.

Most of us are planted in average soil. It isn't too exceptional, it provides enough to survive - on occasion a little extra. Average soil provides us with a solid foundation for a decent life.

A few of us are nestled into rich soil, bountiful with resources. It is hard for a plant not to flourish in these. Unfortunately, a handful of them just don't.

The remainder of us are buried into dirt. Dry, nutrient-poor dirt. It is hard to imagine anything could take root in this… yet many still manage. Resilience allows these few to carve out a life. Decent, rich or otherwise.

Consider the soil as the household, community, culture, and nation we are born into. Each level of the environment in which we are planted has an enormous level of influence on our trajectory in life.

The beauty in humanity is that a few of us are not so deeply rooted in the soil we are planted in at birth. This noble group tear the roots from the soil and plant themselves in an environment that is suitable to them.

Gardeners are extraordinary. Their sole purpose is to ensure that a plant thrives. By understanding the needs of different plants a gardener can carefully provide water and sunshine. As humans we are dynamic and at times play the role of both plant and gardener.

Our first gardeners are the people who raise us. Through them, we learn how much water and sunshine we should give ourselves, while also influencing our ideal on how much water and sunshine we think others will need when we assume the role of gardener for them.

Inevitably, we will be called on to play the gardener and it is important to remember the following.

People Must Be Watered

Water is essential for everything. For plants it allows them to take advantage of the nutrients in their environment so that they can be processed and used by the plant. For humans, watering translates to being given consistent attention, receiving education, and being giving consideration to what we need as individuals to grow.

An under-watered plant will dry out and die; an over-watered plant will suffocate, rot, and die. Concerning the human experience - under-watering is being neglected and over-watering is being smothered.

Watering is a delicate balancing act and should be treated with the utmost care.

It is love and without proper love we are undone.

People Need Sunshine

Sunshine graces a plant giving it energy and activating within the plant everything it has received from its environment. Plants will reach toward the sun their entire life. Either activating or attempting to activate what they've gained from the soil and water.

Sunshine is purpose.

We all grow to acquire a sense of purpose and we strive towards that purpose for the entirety of our existence. With everything in us we reach for this - growing ever so slightly as we evolve into our higher being.

Unfortunately, sometimes we find ourselves in the shadows and aren't able to see or feel our purpose. We search desperately for the light so that we can be reinvigorated and activate once again. Some succeed, some don't.

Fun fact: plants experience the same exact trauma. If a plant finds itself immersed in the shadows, it will stretch itself out tremendously, desperately trying to get back to the sunlight, never giving up until the bitter end.

With sunlight, we are fulfilled and able to attain the lofty heights of our humanity.

People Branch Out

Nothing stays the same forever. Although our general form internally or externally doesn't change very much - growth is constant.

Throughout our life we experience events, these events make us feel things, feelings solidify into thought, thought becomes concrete action, action leads to more events and the cycle repeats.

When we learn from our actions it becomes one of our branches… it is wisdom. This process is called branching out.

The sequence of events we experience over a lifetime differs dramatically from person-to-person. This is why people grow apart. We can't fully comprehend many of the branches another person has grown.

The inverse of this is growing together. Having seen everything a person has gone through and being happy that they were able to grow so magnificently.

Have you ever had a moment where you've asked yourself: "Who have I become?"

Growth naturally occurs within ourselves as well. When we are not directing our consciousness to what we have overcome, new branches sprout within us without notice. But more often than not - we become what we give our attention to and are very aware of how we are branching out.

To perfect ourselves is to know our branches and appreciate the branches of others.

Like plants, we are fractal in nature and the simple pattern of branching out is the architect of all individuals.