This month’s video comes to you from the Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa. While sitting silent and connecting with a herd of wild elephants, here, I had an aha moment:
What if our ideas of survival of the fittest are wrong and we are missing swaths of information that tell a deeper story? What if Life is not a journey of striving to make use of scarce resources—out smarting others in order to become the strongest and fittest species that evolves to pass one’s genes?
Instead, what if Life, itself, is a complex journey of an intricate harmony of relationships. I’m not talking about a utopia by any stretch—but rather, a vast network of profoundly challenging yet immensely nurturing relationships. It’s these complex relationships that help to grow and evolve each one of us so we can become the fullest expression of ourselves.
When I looked at the lessons of Mother Nature, through this lens, it felt a lot more inline with what I knew in my heart to be true. When we each take the time to do the brave and difficult work of personal development, learn to transform our current culture patterns—or the coping behaviors that stem from trauma—we grow one another.
Ultimately, when we make our own growth, inner work and self-care a top priority—we restore our ability to form powerful, meaningful relationships that evolve new possibility for the full expression of life, for generations to come.
I share more in this video:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/350800508
Here are the links to the video clips and book I reference in this video:
The Secret Language of Trees with Camille Defrenne and Suzanne Simard
How Trees Talk to Each Other TED Talk with Suzanne Simard
The Hidden Life of Trees, a book by Peter Wohlleben