Human Nature

Standing on my back porch, looking down at my sweet garden several feet below, I notice these things: the birds madly fluttering in flight because of my sudden presence; the bird feeder getting low in birdseed even though I filled it yesterday; the purple flowers that withstood a raging rainstorm that included hail the other evening, still drooped over in sadness. Nature, doing what it needs to do, no matter what or who is watching.

I think about human nature. When trampled by someone else’s words or behaviors, our belief system is affected and we tend to feel hurt and lose self-confidence. Is nature wiser than we humans are? Nature doesn’t care who says what about the flowers or trees if they receive food (water and sunshine). They do what they are supposed to do: they grow.

Both words and actions are powerful. They can stunt human growth.

When I was six, I was the tallest in my first-grade class. In second grade, I still was the tallest. In third grade, I was the tallest girl.

My mother took me to the hair salon between third and fourth grade, where they stuck me in that big chair, cutting off my tush-length brown curls. I left with a “bowl cut,” short and straight.

The next morning, thinking it must have been a dream, my fingers reached toward my head for my long, comforting hair. Gone.

The next year, in fourth grade, my young body began to be “stunted.” I was no longer the tallest or even the second tallest.

To this day, sitting in a salon chair makes me want to run.

If human nature truly mirrored nature, imagine how self-confident, resilient and courageous we would be.

I want to be more like nature.

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