Communing With Plant Intelligence: Receive Their Ancient Awarenesses

"[Man] sees the morning as the beginning of a new day; he takes germination as the start in the life of a plant, and withering as its end. But this is nothing more than biased judgment on his part. Nature is one. There is no starting point or destination, only an unending flux, a continuous metamorphosis of all things."

—Masanobu Fukuoka, THE NATURAL WAY OF FARMING

Masanobu was and is a hero of mine, and I've been studying his work for decades, since I first embarked on my journey as a permaculturista. He uses direct perception of natural systems, then simply mirrors the actions of the natural systems, with phenomenal results in farming and in relating to the Natural World in a wholesome way.

When we truly slow down our busy human minds and take in what is actually happening in the natural world around us, we can experience simultaneously a calming and a quickening, as we realize that life is in constant metamorphosis all around us.

Plants---trees, shrubs, flowers, groundcovering---stand as sentries of ancient design, holding and emanating 3.5 billion years of wisdom on how to live as part of Earth. When we take in plants in the forms of food, scent, or medicine, we're partaking in the cumulative intelligence of these light-eating beings. They in turn impart their light and wisdom to our cellular bodies, and help us to heal and thrive. This is a most elegant system of receiving healing and nurturance. I pray we will mirror this elegance in our every deliberation as we in turn nurture life. May it be so!