I just love my garden at this time of year. My therapy room looks out onto it, and it is delighting me to notice that sometimes hour to hour I can see how the plants have grown and changed.
The garden puts me in mind of the way we are all in a process of continual growth. Even as adults, our bodies are not static and unchanging. On average our cells are replaced every 7-10 years. While the cells in the middle of your eye lenses do last a lifetime, white blood cells may only live 2 days. Cells die, new ones replace them, and somehow we continue to have a sense of a coherent and continuing self through this ongoing process of death and birth inside us.
Psychologically, we are also in constant motion. We are continually having experiences, and these experiences shape our perceptions and thoughts, and evolve our way of interpreting the world. This can happen suddenly as well as gradually, and its effects can be far reaching and deep. I find it a hopeful, energizing idea to know I am growing and becoming, and that things will never again be as they are in this particular moment.
It’s good to reflect regularly on how you, and your perceptions have changed. What do you notice has shifted for you recently?
