Meditation Monday - Resilience Means Adaptability
Lessons from Psalm 1 and from a Red River Gum.
Resilience and adaptability are the words that keep revolving in my mind. They are both characteristics that we all need at the moment. As you can imagine they go hand in hand. To be resilient we need to be adaptable to the changing world around us. To adapt we need resilience.
Today’s post is the third in a series that I am writing about resilience. My first article, two weeks ago was Building Resilience in a Changing World. My second post written last week, was Growing Resilience Through Winter about the lessons we learn from winter. Several people commented on how much these posts spoke to where they are at the moment. All of us are recognizing the need for resilience through the chaos of the season.
Today’s post is adapted from one I wrote 4 years ago. It began as a reflection on Psalm 1 which speaks to me of both adaptability and resilience. It is one of my favorite psalms and in the aftermath of the horrific wildfires in L.A. last week and the hurricane in North Carolina a few weeks ago, and now an historic snowfall in Houston Texas, it has taken on new meaning.
Psalm 1:1-3 The Passion Translation
What delight comes to the one who follows God’s ways!
He won’t walk in step with the wicked,
nor share the sinner’s way,
nor be found sitting in the scorner’s seat.
His passion is to remain true to the Word of “I AM,”
meditating day and night on the true revelation of light.
He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree
Planted by God’s design,
deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss,
bearing fruit in every season of life.
He is never dry, never fainting,
ever blessed, ever prosperous.
When I think of a tree planted beside a stream, this painting which was given to Tom and me as a wedding present and now stands in the corner of our living room comes to mind. It depicts a very typical outback Australian scene, with an Australian red river gum prominently in the foreground.
Majestic red river gums are common in Australia, especially in the dry interior and they form an iconic image of many an Australian painting. They always grow along the banks of water courses, some of which dry up periodically and then are inundated with flooding waters. Red river gums are amazingly resilient and adaptable. They can withstand both drought and flood. Amazingly they are able to stand up to 9 months of immersion in flood waters and can withstand a decade of drought.
This incredible tolerance is because of their extensive root system. In drought, they can reach down, sometimes 30 to 40 feet, to the subterranean water systems below but periodically they need to be inundated with floodwaters to remain healthy and survive. Some of their roots contain a spongy air-filled tissue that accumulates and transports oxygen in waterlogged soils
Red river gums grow huge and can live up to 1,000 years. They often provide shelter from the heat for both animals and humans and one of my childhood delights was to come across a family of kangaroos lounging in the shade under the canopy of one beautiful old and gigantic gum tree by the river.
Their roots really do go down deep. They are resilient, they adapt and because of that they provide shelter and nutrition for animals and often for people too. In the painting there is a group of aboriginals enjoying the shade of one of the trees in the background.
My hydrangeas on the other hand, have shallow roots that probably remain in the top 6” of the soil. I have to water them every few days in the summer. They do better in shade than in direct sun and as you can see, this one did not do well when the heat hit. Such a vivid contrast to the trees in my painting.
In Australia, months, if not years of drought are usually followed by flooding rains which spread out across the floodplains bringing life to the thirsty trees. Being able to survive in both these situations is essential. I think that we all need deep root systems like the Australian red river gum. We are meant to be able to survive in times of drought as well as flood when we feel inundated by the world’s problems and the challenges of our own lives.
I think that many of us feel that we have been through both drought and flood in the last few years. Some feel that we have been inundated by downpour after downpour and in its aftermath, we feel dried out as though we are in the middle of a drought.
So as I sit here today contemplating this painting, I wonder, “What helps build my root system so that it goes deep into the hidden sources of God’s water beneath me? What within me stores oxygen for those times when I feel flooded by the challenges both of my life and of our world and cannot find air to breathe?”
Three things come to mind that you are probably sick and tired of me talking about. However I feel we can never remind ourselves too often of these practices.
Morning contemplative practices like breath prayers, lectio divina, and Visio divina. I never get tired of sitting in my sacred space in the early morning drinking in the presence of God in the stillness around me.
Awe and wonder walks both around the garden and through the neighbourhood. Absorbing the beauty and wonder of God’s created world enables us to worship God with all my senses both growing deep roots and storing oxygen for those torrential rains.
Regular retreats. Nothing is as soul renewing for me as the quarterly retreats that Tom and I take. Like most of us, I lead a busy life and the busyness alone can flood my soul with negative thoughts and emotions that dry me up inside. Without these retreats, I would not survive. Our last retreat to Anacortes was particularly renewing. Even though it rained most of the time, we still walked on the beach and around the town. The cold rainy wind was quite invigorating.
I love to see the scriptures come to life as I examine them with real life examples from God’s created world to bring them into the real world, as I was able to do with Psalm 1 today. I love the imagery of a tree deeply rooted by a stream where it can grow down to the deep subterranean water sources. Whenever I see a red river gum on my trips to Australia, I am reminded of Psalm 1 and of my need to send down deep roots. It is such a wonderful connection that helps deepen my faith in surprising ways.
What about you? What have you seen, or heard, or touched or tasted this week that connects you to the imagery of the Psalms or other scriptures? In what ways has this experience strengthened your faith and your connection to God? How has it helped send down roots that build resilience and adaptability in your life? What kinds of practices do you perform on a regular basis that encourage you to strengthen you faith in this way?
Beautiful imagery really bought psalm 1 alive . Thankyou
This was delightful! I just walked through all three of the resilience posts…very timely as I am on a one day retreat tomorrow, and will use this to pray and reflect on the months to come, my second year of retirement. Psalm 1 is a “dear friend” to me (first Bible passage I memorized decades ago, so this resonates deeply with me.
My wife and I walk frequently, and weekends we walk together for several miles. After a wet winter, this last weekend was wonderful: cool and crisp, with clear blue skies!
But the highlight of the weekend was to view the world through the eyes of our three grandchildren, 8,6 and 3, who came over for dinner on Saturday evening. In particular, they all wanted to paint, so after dinner, we all went downstairs to my wife’s art room, and armed with brush and canvas and easel, began to mix colors and paint. “Let’s paint grandpa,” the oldest cried! Lots of fun and laughter, my “portrait” was hung over the door!