What's Your Agenda

"Nature has no agenda."

I can't remember where I first read the above quote, or who it is attributed to, but it's one that I like to return to whenever I become overwhelmed by the verbal tug of war that seems to be continually going on around me every day. One cannot turn on the news or log on to social media without being bombarded by the us vs them, right/wrong, good/bad mentality. It's as if everyone has forgotten that, for better or worse, we're all in this together. How much easier would it be if we had no personal agendas? What if we just all rowed in the same direction for a change and did what we were put here to do?

Nature, indeed, has no agenda. You only have to spend a little time in it, watching it, from one season to another, to realize that by just being who and what it is, nature goes on . It was here long before we got here and, if we were to all disappear tomorrow, it would rejuvenate itself and keep right on going after we're gone. That's a pretty big pill to swallow when you stop to think about it: nature can get along very well without us. In fact, it could get along much better without us. 

The tree pictured above was my oldest granddaughter's favorite tree when she was little. She called it Grandma Willow after a character in the Disney version of "Pocahontas." It isn't a willow, but she didn't care. She loved it and brought it presents all the time. Years later most of it came down in a winter storm. Even though she was an adult when it happened, she was saddened when she saw it, as if she had lost a dear friend. As you can see, Grandma Willow is doing what she needs to do be who she is. As soon as spring arrived after that awful winter had passed, she started sending out new shoots and branches. By the time my great-grandson, the child of that little girl who brought presents to a tree, is grown, Grandma Willow will be providing love to another generation. She's just being who she is. 

Grass doesn't have an agenda - it just grows. Trees take their cues from the seasons, blooming in the spring, producing fruit, nuts, seeds, and shade in the summer, dropping its leaves and mulching the ground in the fall, pulling itself in to rest and nurture itself in the winter, all to start the journey again in the spring. Animals go through life eating, breathing, and raising their young. Some hibernate or migrate in the winter, some hunker down and ride it out. For all species of every kind, it would seem that spring is the one factor that is featured in everyones story. When spring comes, it's as if they all follow the same message: just be who you are. 

So how about we take a cue from Mother Nature and find a way to just be who we are?. What better time than spring to follow the birds and the trees, and just live without agendas, only a commitment to be who and what we were made to be: love and happiness.

And so it is.