Learning Lessons From Nature

There’s this noxious weed called thistle all over our property. It’s comprised of a thick stalk, often topped with a venus flytrap-looking purple flower. The oily, spiky leaves poke and sting as you brush by, and although some stalks are eyesores as tall as 4 feet, the small ones will surprise you.

So we’ve set out to get rid of them. We bought the Grandpa’s Weeder on Amazon – a tall, pronged tool with a little foot lever, which promises to work according to reviews.

Armed and motivated, I trudged the weeder up the meadow and deep into the stream bed to tackle our thistle problem.

I plunged Grandpa’s Weeder into the earth, stepped on and angled the lever at the base of the plants. Sometimes they came out easily, but in most cases… tenacious would be an understatement.

I stomped on the lever harder. I changed the angle of the prongs on the stems. I switched my stomping foot. But sometimes they resisted. Sometimes the stem broke high, leaving a root that will surely grow again.

Damn that thistle! I thought, as sweat began to drip from underneath my hat.

My eyes then focused on a trout swimming in a deep section of the creek. He bobbed in and out of the bubbles forming at the center of the stream, and then he paused in the calm water to the side. I could see him so clearly, and he was beautiful. He was about a foot long with a yellow underbelly and spots like leopard prints along the top of his tail. I bent down and our eyes met for a minute while he was near the surface.

Something clicked in me, and my thoughts suddenly changed.

“Damn that thistle… is STRONG! And how amazing that this fish is smart enough to survive here. It grew into its beautiful self from the tiny babies we saw in this hole only two months ago!”

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

William Shakespeare

You think you’re fit. You fancy yourself a badass, being that you can press a dumbbell and swing a kettlebell and deadlift a barbell.

You think you’re smart. You spent years in school to learn the stuff you get paid a lot of money to do. When you talk, people listen and respond.

Then, tired and sweaty with a sore back and burning hands and a very unimpressive pile of thistle to show for your hours of work, you get schooled by a plant and a fish.

Nature is stronger. Nature is smarter.

Why do we even train – in the gym or at a profession? All those days spent pushing weight in a stuffy gym, all those nights under the fluorescent lights of the hospital halls or the dim lamps of the library desks.

To be fit for life. To survive. This is really what it’s all about.

Did that other stuff prepare me for what’s in store now?

Honestly, I’m not so sure.

My goals have shifted. They no longer revolve around certain definitions of strength or intelligence or success. I think that’s natural and ok.

What do you think? How have your goals and aspirations changed? Leave a comment below and let me know.