The Mother of all Mentors

Is it just ME, or do you, too, find the changing of the seasons an intriguing time to take in the wonder of nature?

A New Yorker, coming off a much more severe winter than usual, I, like millions have been teased by a day above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, a blast of sunshine on a windless afternoon just above freezing (believe me, we were grateful) and the early morning chirping of birds – a personal fav – only to be followed by wind, torrential rain, snow showers and sunless skies.

The calendar declares it to be Spring but the weather alleges otherwise.

This morning’s United States national news (Sunday, March 30, 2014) headlines included the aftermath of deadly mudslides in Washington State, an earthquake in California, fires in Iowa, deadly sink holes in Michigan and hundreds of souls yet unaccounted for somewhere – they think – off the coast of Australia and grieving families still hoping against hope….while unusually high waves, wind and fog make difficult recovery, let alone rescue.

Diverse though these stories may be, a single condition connects them all.  It is the human condition as it strives to cope with devastating conditions resulting from assorted personalities of Mother Nature. 

 

I have the habit of assessing situations and trying to find the message, the lesson we can take-away and learn from.  Here’s what I think…

Nature is, well…natural.   She is often indefinable, hard to understand, often misunderstood, too often underestimated and powerful beyond our ability to sometimes accept. 

She gives warmth and she can kill with her frosty bite.   She brings what seems dead back to life and inspires us to care for her offspring, over and over again. 

She is on the job 24/7/365 and she is ultimately reliable despite her intermittent challenges.  She encourages us to move forward as she inspires change and celebrates survival.

She is aptly named:  MOTHER Nature.  Who or what else could have such strength, such perseverance, such strength?  Who else would take the time to teach us what may be life’s greatest – and toughest - lessons?

Not even the changing of the seasons is guaranteed to go smoothly.  Mother Nature, herself, must fight to get the job done; she never surrenders.  She fights on until, within a short time, we forget the challenges we faced and get to participate in her newest gift, whatever the season may be.

That’s the lesson!

If endurance and working through the set-backs is good enough for Mother Nature, how can it not be good enough for you and for me, for anyone?  Through her very own example she demonstrates the challenges of daily trials and re-trials.

Under the worst of conditions, such as today’s headlines, she helps us dig deeper than we thought we ever could, she helps us see beyond the tip of our own nose and become part of a neighborhood and ultimately a global community.  That is when we are individually and collectively at our very best.

These are not easy lessons to learn, not easy circumstances to endure, but coming out on the other side is to feel the warmth of the Spring’s sun inside and out and that is the kind of warmth that will be there for you when you need it most.

So, IS it just me, or do you, too, agree that Mother Nature IS the ultimate Mentor; indeed, THE ULTIMATE WOMAN?

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