Inner Gardening by Diane Dreher

Author:Diane Dreher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Turning toward the Light

WHEN I WATER my houseplants, I rotate them to keep them growing symmetrically because they always lean toward the light. They have a kind of intelligence that moves them toward as much light as possible. Botanists call this phototropism: when a plant’s stem grows toward the light, leading to asymmetrical growth.

Plants have more than one way of turning toward the light. When they move their leaves to follow the sun, it is called heliotropism. Plants usually keep their leaves perpendicular to the sun’s rays, so they can absorb as much solar energy as possible to facilitate photosynthesis, which uses light to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates they use for food. In extreme heat or drought, plants turn their leaves up vertically, to reduce the amount of sun on their surfaces. This is what my bean plants were doing last month until I gave them some afternoon shade.4

Plants always turn toward what is good for them, while many people do just the opposite: dwelling on the darkness, lingering in the shadows. Like a garden in filtered sun, any day brings us both sunlight and shadow, good and bad events. Some people focus on the good, turning toward the light. These are the optimists. Others dwell on the dark side of everything. Focusing on the negative, they ruminate and catastrophize. Busy worrying about what might happen, they miss the bright opportunities in their midst. More people than ever seem to be dwelling in the shadows. According to the psychologist Martin Seligman, there’s “an unprecedented epidemic of depression” in America and most of the developed world, but we can do something about it.5 We can change the way we respond to our experience: stop dwelling in the shadows and start turning toward the light.

This week I sprained my back and found myself staring at the shadows. My back hurt, I felt incapacitated, and I couldn’t train in aikido, put compost around the garden, or do a lot of other things I’d planned. The sprained back was bad enough, but thinking about all I could not do and worrying about my body falling apart was even worse. I was dwelling in the shadows.

Turning toward the light gives plants access to the sun’s vital energy. People become energized when they affirm a sense of agency, renewed power and possibility. Since I couldn’t really work in my garden, I took the time to walk through it slowly. This was much better than sitting inside ruminating. Walking around helped my back muscles loosen up, and being in the garden always lifts my spirits. Focusing on what I could do instead of what I couldn’t made me feel better too. I couldn’t bend over to do much garden work, but I could do some light trimming, so I took my garden shears and cut back some errant crape myrtle and camellia branches to create more order along the north garden path. Then I cut some roses to bring inside.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.