“post thumbnail” I was struggling of what image I could place in the thin header above the text. Then I came across a beautiful portrait of wildflowers and realized that it would be perfect , for now.  The picture reminded me of what I’m fortunate enough to see and experience every day; the beauty and the self-sufficiency of nature.

You see I live in the Eastern Sierra’s where I’m surrounded by beauty daily.  But it also lends itself as a world of wonderment.  I have hiked up many mountainsides, over saddles between peaks and found in the most unusual places wildflowers in full bloom and thriving.  I’ve often questioned the elements: how can this be? no rivers are visible, the elevation is quite high and the air is extremely dry. No trees can even survive in these areas and yet a lone wildflower sits healthy pointing its tip to the sun.

And yet for the past 10 years I’ve willfully attempted yearly to grow wildflowers in the soil in a plot in our front yard.  I believed to have bought the right soil, increased the watering schedule, reduced the watering schedule, bought different seeds, bought different soil, bought starter plants, dug deeper, dug shallow and yet no results.  In 10 years I have yet to be proud of one wildflower growing in the plot dominated by aspens. After 10 years, I sat staring at this mound and asked for the first time, how can I look at this differently.  It was then that I considered that perhaps the aspens were consuming all the nutrients that I believed that I was giving to my seeds.

As a result, I learned a few valuable lessons.  I made multiple attempts at scratching the surface but got nowhere because it took me 10 years to look at what could possibly be happening at the roots.   That nature just does: it provides for itself and uses what it needs.    Similar to nature, the human body provides for itself and does what it can to take care of itself.  We can treat the surface as symptoms arise or we can look at the roots and find out why something isn’t working quite the way we want it to and nurture it back to health.

Be healthy and happy!

Lynn