Looking, and Being Willing to See

It is owing to our limitations that a thing appears to us as single and separate when in truth it is not a separate thing at all. -- Rudolf Steiner

It's hard to say at this point if the inexorable reductionism of scientific inquiry has warped us this way, or the cultural mythology of "rugged individualism" that is the water we swim in.  Regardless, here we drift along in the current of this delusion of autonomy.

Seeing ourselves as separate.

Seeing all things as disconnected.

And pretending that it is somehow noble and good.

But it is delusion.  Just because a baby holds his hand across his eyes to obscure the field of vision doesn't mean his mother isn't present only inches away.  And just because I can't -- or won't -- see the connections weaving all of creation into interdependence doesn't mean those very real connections aren't at work. 

Steiner, writing and studying in Germany in the early 1920's and often called the "Father of Bio-Dynamics", advocated a system of farming that is spiritual-ethical-ecological.  Preparing, planting and tending honor and seek to maintain a "diversified, balanced farm ecosystem that generates health and fertility as much as possible from within the farm itself," incorporating preparations "made from fermented manure, minerals and herbs are used to help restore and harmonize the vital life forces of the farm and to enhance the nutrition, quality and flavor of the food being raised" (Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association). These seemingly quirky preparations, coupled with the fact that bio-dynamic practices follow the phases of the moon, helps explain why the method is often dismissed as so much "voodoo."  But no one accuses the ocean of witchcraft because currents and waves are influenced by the moon.  Why should plant fluids moving up and down the stem be exempt? 

 Or the beneficial fungal and bacterial activity feeding roots in healthy soils?

Or the pollinating assistance of bees?

Or the leaf's capacity to convert sunlight to energy?

Or the human body's ability to convert a pea or a tomato or a carrot or a beat into nourishment?

And that's just in the garden and the gut.  Who can imagine the connections that are pulsing through a healthy community, whether we can see them or not? 

And who can fathom the desolation when such interconnections are severed by our self-righteous offerings laid at the altar of individualism?  I may not yet be up to the discipline of practicing this method of farming, but there is hope that I might deepen my capacity to practice this method of living.

Might we eventually learn that uniqueness and connectedness are not enemies, but essential and reinforcing blessings within the phenomena of grace -- and the resilience of such a web is a gift rather than a burden?

Perhaps this day I might lower my hand long enough to see one more expression of the connectedness that was gloriously present all along.