Precious Life and Well-being

Monarch From
Neighbor's Garden 

As the dog days of summer continue I start these reflections with Mary Oliver' poem ,The Summer Day.  Her poem ends with a challenging question and Dr. Richie (Richard) Davidson's research on well-being suggests some answers. Dr. Davidson is a research professor of psychology and psychiatry and the Founder and Director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He and Center staff have extensively researched mindfulness and meditation with the result being tools that help people build skills of well-being. 

The Summer Day

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean--

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down --

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life? 

Dr. Richie Davidson would encourage a plan for our precious lives that includes well-being. What follows are points that I have distilled from his research. 

·        Well-being is when our lives have "greater comfort, health and happiness" (quote from online article, includes audio ) 

·        Well-being is a composite of four skills (also referred to as “pillars” and/or “constituents”) that can be learned. The skills  are awareness, connection, insight, and purpose. We integrate the four into our lives through learning and practice, and without feeling that a problem must be fixed.

·        Well-being and its four skills are grounded in the examination of traditional contemplative literature and findings from modern biobehavioral science. Data from MRI brain scans of  experienced meditators are a primary source and was the basis for applying the construct of  neuroplasticity to contemplative practices. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural pathways throughout life and in response to experiences. Dr. Davidson and his team found through meditation (and by inference practicing the four skills) we rewire and change our brain's neural networks in ways that ultimately benefit us emotionally. 

   

·        Awareness is paying attention to what’s happening in the present moment.  As Mary Oliver states in the poem "The Summer Day:"  I do know how to pay attention.  Davidson points out this is no easy task. He writes: "The level of distractibility in our culture today is skyrocketing, diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are steeply rising, and the tech companies are masterminds at competing for our attention" (quote from another online article).

·        Connection is a composite of qualities that support self-care and caring for others. In the set are appreciation, gratitude, kindness, generosity, and compassion.

·        Insight is the capacity to curiously investigate and understand our thoughts, beliefs, and expectations and how these shape sense of self and perceptions of the world. Furthermore as a result of insight we better understand how an overemphasis on self (me or mine) is an obstacle to well-being.   

·        Purpose , the fourth skill, sets a sense of direction in life. We sense where our life is headed. We also are better at clarifying our values and able to ascribe meaning to our lives.

Well-being and it’s four related skills, as laid out by Dr. Davidson, may strike you as being rather complex and challenging. Dr. Davidson reminds us that we learn other complex skills through understanding and practice. I would add that Buddhist teaching about wise intention and wise effort are helpful. We start with setting an intention that can also be thought of as an aspiration. Our ambition is  to integrate well-being into our lives without setting a goal that must be met at all costs. Determination is required but efforts are gentle, free off striving, and marked with patience. Furthermore, wise effort involves recognizing that mind and heart states are not constant or forever; they arise and pass away. Yet moment by moment we continue to move forward, in this case, towards well-being.

Prospect Gardens has been an important part of my life for 15  years. I'm now evaluating how the Gardens fit into the larger purpose of my life. Tending the Gardens have contributed so much to my sense of well-being while providing opportunities to practice the related four skills. Now the Gardens are teaching me to let go and how to develop a revised plan for this precious life. The plan is still emerging.

  

Meanwhile, I celebrate the contentment and being part of a  community felt during the July 27th Prospect Gardens work session. I am also celebrating the return of the sparkling blue small rock that disappeared about a few months ago. Someone created it several years ago and I imagine it was a child. Why this gem disappeared and returned is a mystery. I offer thanks to the person who returned  the gem.

Here's the July 27th crew near the end of a longer than usual break. I always build in time for chatting. Thank you very much for your good work. 

I'm in the first row in a long sleeve shirt, despite the warm day. I was prepared to remove stinging nettles. 

To my left is Ann N. Behind Ann and me (starting on the left) is Madeline, a West High Leo Club member and a Junior, Laura V., and then Joyce. On the top row, are Gregory, Jessica, Becky, and Astrid. Ann B. took the picture.

Later in the morning Laura B., the keeper of several prairie gardens along the Southwest Path in the Westmoreland neighborhood, stopped by. As usual she was on her bike. While we chatted, I learned about a native nettle species and how the larvae from the following spectacular butterflies eat nettle: Eastern Comma, Question Mark, Red Admiral, and Milbert’s Tortoiseshell. I agree with Laura's assessment: Nettles serve a purpose! Now to learn the difference between native and non-native nettles.

The work session ended before the day's heat really settled in. Here's Jessica about to leave after her first time tending the Gardens. She and Gregory removed  many young Japanese Sumac from a section on the Regent side of the Gardens. Jessica has a Japanese Sumac on the back of the bike; hoping to transplant it.

As is customary in my posts I share pictures about the Gardens and here are six. Many plants are now at the peak stage of blooming. Yellow from native plants and pink from non-native phlox are now dominant colors throughout the Gardens. Our initial plan was for all native prairie plants. Several years ago, for a reason I can no longer recall, a few Non-native pink phlox were planted. They have now multiplied and spread. They even thrive in sections covered with rocks. 

Golden Soldier Beetles (if you look closely) busy pollinating a prairie coneflower. 

Joe Pye Weed in full bloom. Another native plant that attracts pollinators, including bees.  

Top of a Cup plant. These are self-seeded from a neighbor's yard. They are thriving and spreading along the Fox side of the Gardens. It's always a pleasure discovering what plants find their way into the Gardens. Less pleasurable, is noticing those we plant and that don't thrive. For example, the Gardens once had several patches of vibrant red Cardinal plants. Now only two plants remain on the Regent side and you really need to look for them. 

Black Eye Susan  (yellow) and purple Asters. These migrated from another section of the Gardens. I'm somewhat surprised by how early the Asters are blooming.  Perhaps a sign of an early autumn? 

  

More Black Eye Susan, and Culver Root (gray blossoms). The tall broad leaf plant not yet in bloom is a Jerusalem Artichoke also known as Wild Sunflower. The tubers are edible. There will be many. 

The Elderberries are ripening and some are ready to pick. Another sign that summer's pace has quickened. June, who lives near the Gardens, harvests the berries and makes tasteful jams and jellies. 

 Elderberries must be cooked first to safely remove the lectin and cyanide (toxins). Raw elderberries have a bitter, tart flavor, but cooked they taste quite different. Raw berries are also mildly poisonous. .

I end these reflections with another Mary Oliver poem and a wish for you. The poem, to me, underscores our precious lives while speaking to us about well-being. 

When I am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It's simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.”

Sun Dial in Prospect Gardens.
Gift from former neighbor. 

May you be "filled with light, and to shine" as time goes by. May we meet again in person or through this blog.