Entry #2. Destroying (Nature) to Create

    You may have clicked on this entry expecting to read about deforestation. However, destroying to create is actually a saying based in Hinduism and refers to the idea that you cannot create new life, without destroying old life or gain without being able to let go. This saying can be applied to not only the spiritual parts of life, such as letting go of old pain to overcome fear, but also to the physical parts of life. One very beautiful example of losing to gain, is the plants natural ability to grow lush with the loss of some of it's leaves or branches.

Sonal Chhajed

    Within the past two years or so, I have taken up the hobby of gardening and it has taken over my life. It has become a form of therapy for me and reminds me that life can get better, no matter the hardship. During this time, I learned that many, not all, plants have the ability to grow back twice as strong when they are damaged or trimmed back. Additionally, I have also learned that when some plants have yellowing or dying leaves, they aren't always dying. The yellowing or dropping of leaves could be the plant taking nutrients from the oldest leaf and forcing its nutrients into a new stem or leaf. Isn't that beautiful?

    However, the specific process that reminds me of the loose quote, "you must destroy, to create and create to destroy" is called pruning. Pruning is when you snip back very specific branches of a plant to enforce new growth in areas where it needs support or just growth in general. This practice is commonly used by artists who work with bonsai art forms. Bonsai art forms are the tiny, fancy trees you see in museums or public gardens that come in small pots but carry an old tree that has held its form in the small pot due to years of careful pruning and nutrition. 

    Though it may seem destructive when you see someone trimming their hedges, mowing their lawn, or ripping leaves off of the tips of their plants they may actually be doing good. When plants lose foliage, they find a way to redirect the energy that was used on the previous foliage to be used on creating new, more mature foliage. This process reminds me of how living can get hard sometimes, you can get lost in all of your old problems like plants become overgrown in old leaves. Sometimes, you may even lose someone close to you just as a tree may lose it's closest, oldest branch. At the end of the day, you will come back stronger as long as you continue on just as plants do. The real therapy of gardening has come with the ability to relate my human life with the life of nature itself.