Nature Calls, but do we Listen?

Salt crystals. Photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

We can learn a lot from nature if we tune our ear to the frequencies through which the language of nature is spoken.

The element chlorine is very hungry for relationship. It’s rarely found unattached. It typically is in relationship with other elements but in some cases it is in a free form state. In this unattached state, chlorine in high concentrations is very poisonous to biological organisms.

Sodium is a soft, silvery-white, and highly reactive metal that, like chlorine, is a very relationship hungry element. If a chunk of sodium comes in contact with water it reacts violently as it binds to the oxygen in the water and releases the hydrogen. If the water and sodium sources are large enough the heat can also ignite the hydrogen ejected from the reaction and cause an even more violent reaction spewing molten bits of sodium. In high concentrations sodium in its unattached form is damaging to biological organisms.

Both of these elements alone are harmful to us, but together in relationship sodium chloride forms salt, an essential ingredient for biology. Sodium helps us regulate our blood volume, blood pressure, hydration of cells and a host of other tasks that are essential for the proper functioning of our biological systems. If we understand this message pouring through the relationships that define nature, each of us is like a bit of sodium or chlorine; destructive or harmful by ourselves, but essential and valuable when we work together in relationship with the right partners. Finding our place in the context of the larger community is of high value, even essential, and being isolated from our place in the natural order is as damaging as sodium and chlorine are in isolation to biology.

Powerful messages actively pour out what we often consider mundane and obvious events. To properly unlock the value of this communication we must understand that communication is part of everything there is, but decoding that communication as it is intended is a matter of recognizing how the language works. Nature communicates through behaviors. If we fail to recognize what is being spoken or if we ignore nature as our guide we are also blind and powerless to both our limitations and our full potential.