April showers brings May flowers… in the northern latitudes at least. That is a saying originated in the United Kingdom. However, here in the mid-south, the May flowers have arrived in April! When I was in Connecticut, a few of my neighbors let their yards go wild during the spring to have all the wildflowers available for the pollinators. Their slogan was “No-Mow May” and it’s a good slogan. Perhaps here in Memphis it should be no-mow April. My main point being if you haven’t mowed your lawn and have been thinking of doing so, perhaps you can let it go a few more weeks so that all the flowers have time to do their thing and all the pollinators have the chance to do theirs.

Which brings me to the topic of following nature’s lead. As a society, we have become quite divorced from nature’s lead and have imposed our own structures, timelines, deadlines, and procedures over nature and believe what we do to be the proper way to do it. Lawns are funny, and our attention to them funny as well. Mowing, blowing, trimming, watering… so much work when nature would just take care of it if we let it. And yet, all these houses with lawns throughout this city and so many others.

The lawn — a patch of green grass tended and cared for, didn’t become a thing until the late 1800’s in the United States and the idea was abandoned during World War Two when all the lawnmowers were melted down for the war effort and people planted vegetable gardens instead. But, when all the GIs came home, and lawn mower production began again, and fertilizers were produced aplenty, the lawn was born anew. You can read about lawn history here.     

I think our connection to nature — our PLACE IN nature — needs to be reconsidered. The “habit” of the lawn uses energy (either fossil fuels in the machines, or coal or natural gas creating the electricity to power the machines) to maintain it, introduces fertilizers and pesticides into the environment, and uses precious water. At this time in our history, isn’t it time to rethink all of the ways we try to bend and twist nature to our will instead of finding our place in it; listening and learning from the cycles of nature and all the flora and fauna how we, too, belong in this ecosystem.

Our personal health relies on a healthy environment, positive interaction within the ecosystem, and mental and spiritual clarity on our inclusion in Nature. We are not separate, we are a very influential part of Nature. Ignoring these connections is sickness. And when ill health and suffering arise in our own lives it is connected to that around us. Toxins dumped into the environment end up in us. Plastics are in our bodies, microplastics finding their way into all of our tissues as we ingest at least a credit card’s worth (5 grams) of plastic a week. We live in a closed system — Earth — and you really can’t throw anything “away.” 

Change begins with each of us, and the best way to reset the way we do things in the world as a whole is to reset how we think of things at home. If we all reset how we think of things, greater change occurs naturally. So first, come in for an acupuncture treatment and get your internal computer rebooted. Then go home and rethink how you sleep, eat, wash, move, and interact with your own environment. It’s a great practice to do with the vital energy of spring all around us.