When you look around in nature, you will find growth isn’t just about constant improvement or achievement.
As humans, at times, we can frame it that way because many of our frameworks focus on growth as progress or growth as productivity. But when we look at trees, rivers, or fields, we are not just seeing plants and landscapes. We are being reminded, in real time, of how growth happens naturally in cycles.
And in those cycles, yes, there will be storms. Yes, there are things in nature that decay, wither, and return to the earth. There are ways entire landscapes shift and change after loss. The way things grow or stop growing is not separate from grief.
And in those very same cycles within landscapes, there is also the possibility of renewal. Rain pours from the sky, and so does sunlight. Leaves fall on the ground, and yet soil also replenishes in that very space. There are things that seem to take forever as they struggle to grow, and then there are also moments, all throughout the year, where we are surprised by the presence of wildflowers, butterflies, mushrooms, migrating birds, and the list goes on.
I hope you find that kind of growth this September, the kind of growth that appears in ways that don’t feel like constant straining or improving but natural movement unfolding in its own time.
Growth does not come easily, but that does not mean it cannot be freeing. That does not mean it cannot surprise you in beautiful, natural ways as you move through September’s landscape.
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May September lead to the kind of beautiful growth that comes so naturally it surprises you and frees you to keep flourishing, despite it all, how you were meant to. – Morgan Harper Nichols
