| One of the old lavender plants just pulled. The new growth is so short that we were unable to harvest it even for distillation this year. |
One of the big things you learn in biodynamics is to observe not only what you see but also what you feel as you see it.
As we pull the old lavender for replanting, I find myself mesmerized by the beauty of the plants, yet saddened. They are the same size blooming as they have been for years, but each year, the wooded part gets a little bigger, and the tender green part, the part we harvest, smaller. The lavender plant may look the same, yet it has become more and more wood, less and less new growth.
What is the analogy here? —for that is important too— the meaning revealed through careful observation, a kind of communication. Both Carl Jung and Rudolf Steiner knew the tool of analogy in accessing parallels in other dimensions, including that of the human soul.
The Egyptians felt flexibility to be one of the great virtues. Does holding on to the old too long make us less open to new growth? Does living through the death of a lavender plant open us to the cycles of life, reminding us of the ebb and flow of vitality?