46. ‘Growth,’ Says the Farmer

January 1, 2021 Mind-Body Column No Comments

Every living thing in nature is ‘growing,’ including us.

All respect to farmers

I have fond memories of (really, more youthful readers) the back of a Brabantian draft horse. I sat on the horse cart on the way to the field to bind the hay together in triangular bales and to load the hay bales onto the cart using a pitchfork. Ah! I loved the smell of the hay while playing on the hayloft! Idyllic. Those days we went to help my godfather on the farm were great.

However, he shouldn’t have eaten greasy bacon with eggs so often, and he always ate lard on his sandwich. Arteriosclerosis. Lower limb amputations. Death.

I have plenty of respect for the common farmer’s sense. It is the beginning of all science.

Science is nothing but the best possible thorough development of common sense. However, the outside world does not often see it that way. One then regards ‘science’ as being on a par with ‘coldness,’ ‘short-sightedness’ and even’ inhumanity.’ Medical science itself would not naturally take into account warm feelings and deeper meanings.

That is not true. Medical science naturally takes everything into account. On the other hand, medical scientists are often people who might be able to learn something from a simple farmer. With all due respect.

‘Growth,’ says the farmer…

Everything that lives in nature grows. Small potato tubers grow into large plants with many large tubers – if all goes well. A farmer knows that a plant grows better if it is well cared for. That often requires hard work, but it’s nice work when one puts one’s soul into it.

A farmer also knows that a plant will not grow by pulling at it. On the contrary, one may get that impression for a moment, but when you then take a look at the roots…

Unfortunately, this mistake is made a lot when it comes to people. We, too, live in nature, especially our psyche. Yet one pretends that one simply has to pull a psyche to bring it to ‘growth.’ This refers to the difference between changing from within (growth) and being changed from the outside (no growth, even if it looks like that). This is relevant for the entire field of psycho-somatics.

In essence, any psycho-somatic suffering is an attempt at the growth that cannot occur naturally, organically.

This requires support, appropriate care. That might cost a lot of effort, but it can be nice work when one puts one’s soul into it. It requires responsibility, patience, and the mindset just to let it happen.

One cannot achieve this growth by pulling the plant or using techniques that take over growth. It is simply impossible to take over the growth process of the plant. A patient will never grow past his chronic tension headache by taking a pill or applying a simple behavioral technique.

It must happen from the inside.

… and he smiles with all his teeth.

Plants do not grow by pinning a label on them. The farmer would laugh hard at that. Just about everything called ‘growth’ in New Age is little more than a cheap label. That’s a pity because that way it is being poorly reflected by and on many people. Bad daylight is not inviting for growth on a broader and deeper level.

All the more reason to take care of the light of day and investigate as an excellent farmer with a lot of common sense is the requirement for natural growth.