Nature's Agenda

I read something quite disturbing the other day in an article about self-love. It said that our economic systems are driving something they called "body terrorism," the idea that we are not only less than perfect, but totally unacceptable, that we hate our bodies, our hair, our clothes, and everything about ourselves. Of course, "they" have the answer if we're willing to spend the money. Self-hatred is big business. Self-love isn't.

Where did we come by this awful idea? Certainly not from the natural world around us and that, as I always say, is the problem. We have become so separated from the world of nature that we have lost its positive influence on our lives. Nature has so much to teach us. Some would say that everyone has their own agenda. Well, I've been thinking about that and it would seem that Nature's agenda is the one we should be adopting. Here is what I've discovered:

• Nobody and nothing in Nature is jealous of anything or anyone else. A pine tree isn't jealous of a maple tree. It doesn't wish it had such beautiful autumn colors and sweet green buds in the spring. A dandelion isn't jealous of a rose and wish it wasn't discriminated against, being called a weed instead of just a plant. That's man's doing. Nature loves dandelions.
• An elephant isn't any better or more valuable or better looking than a monkey, a dog better than a cat, or any animal better or more acceptable than another. Each is perfect as it is.
• There is no greed in nature. There is enough for everyone. 
• There is no hate in nature. 
• Life and death isn't decided by who is considered more worthy or better than another. We are born, we live, we die, and a new life comes to continue the cycle. This is true for every plant, every tree, and every animal. 
• The seasons follow, one after the other, just as the sun rises and sets every day. As far as I can see, that's the only agenda that Mother Nature sticks to.

If a toad can accept himself just as he is, and a pine tree as it is, and a dandelion, who do you think is living a life free of self-hate and enjoying each day as the gift that it is? My money is on the toad.

And so it is.