Trees V Grass

Today I want to explore the issues of Ego, and living in the Present.

The trees have the Ego, and the Grass lives in the Present moment.

The trees are the rulers of the forest, aren't they. They stand tall and proud, hands and arms uplifted to the sky, overseeing their domain. It has taken them hundreds of years to grow in this spot, and nothing is going to shift them. They are the Masters;  birds, insects, entire species of animals need them to survive, to take shelter in them or on them. A dominant breed certainly.

And what of the grass? Well, who gives it a second thought eh? We step on the grass, we ignore the grass, we take it for granted. It's there, it's green, so what. We cut it with our mowers and then bin it. It has no rights or privileges. It is the lowest of the plant species.

Until the storm comes. Until the wind blows. Until the flood comes.

When the wind blows, what does the tree do? It resists. Why? Because it has a memory and an Ego problem. It believes it is the King of the plant species. It remembers the past, and how many storms it has overcome. So it fights back. When the wind blows from the East, the tree faces it and resists it. It defies the wind: "Come on wind, do your worst, I have stood here for hundreds of years; you are just a puff of air that is here today gone tomorrow. Hit me with your best shot, and I will take it".

As we know by now, "what you resist, persists". And "what you focus on, grows".

So the wind blows, the storm comes, the tree resists, objects, complains, whinges, throws a tantrum, and eventually either blows down with an almighty crack, or is uprooted and falls over.

How humiliating, after all that big talk: “It shouldn't have happened to me”.

When the wind blows, what does the grass do? It allows and submits. Why? Because it has no Ego, no pride, no memory of yesterday, and no expectations for tomorrow. The grass doesn't care whether the wind blows from the North, South, East or West, or even from straight above! It can and will cope with anything. It bends with the situation, it rolls with the times, it adapts to the problem, and ultimately, it survives and thrives. “I don't care what you throw at me, I know I will stand up again, if not tomorrow, then certainly within a week”.

Those who resist are actually complaining like the tree.

Those who allow, are living in the NOW like the grass.

I thought all this after I'd seen entire trees uprooted, snapped and on their sides after a recent storm. While the grass merrily stood there, waving happily in the breeze...