Go Animal

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“How are you?” Mike asks. “How are things ….”

“With the business?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says, nodding, as if my words find a home.

Mike and I share this common ground. We’re both small business owners. “How are things with the business?” actually means, “How are you living your best life with and through your business?”

Working for yourself amplifies every life lesson. Each mistake, every celebration, every learning is magnified across days and weeks of intentional living. On all fronts, choice is everything. Caring for myself and finding freshness in what I do is crucial.

I’m here at Mike’s to pick up plants. His wholesale nursery Native Grounds ships native baby greens and trees to garden stores all over the state. I come at least once each spring to bring him seed I’ve saved from his progeny. He gives me young plants in return. Then I collect and buy various beauties to fill in my backyard plant communities.

I tell Mike how thrilled I am with the people I have the honor of working with. I share my balancing act of thinking, doing, and being. I tell him I’m dialing back my analytical brain, which can slip into hyperdrive. My definition of abundance, I say, includes playfulness and rest. He looks down at me and says (rightly) that I must want more of that.

“You’ve gotta go animal,” he drawls. “Full on animal.”

I see myself in his mirrored sunglasses. Rows of green plants stretch out behind me. This is his work in partnership with an impressive team. Love and joy are in it all. He’s not just preaching. It’s part of his practice. I smile.

“Animal,” I say. “Yes. Sensing. Feeling my way through the world.”

I close my eyes and go there in my imagination. I smell the resin of young trees leafing out. I swim in the creek behind his place. I remember how the water feels soft there, and the mud oozes up between my toes.

“You need time,” says Mike. “You need time to just be.”

“Do nothing,” I say.

“Yep,” he says.

I breathe deeply. The seeds for rewilding are now planted. Sure, I’ve found and planted these seeds before, but not here. I planted them a month ago when I was in a different phase of my life. They grew up and flowered there. I found and lived my wilder self then.

More life has happened since. You know what I mean. We don’t just relearn things, we expand our understanding, we generalize the learning to new regions. Every step of the way, new discovery and innovation awaits. We plant our joy, our rewilding, across decades like Johnny Appleseed, in every aspect of our lives.

I smile a small smile, curling up with this truth. I feel the animal within me. I feel the sun on my face and really take it in. I’m a part of that glow. I’m a part of this nursery. My animal self collects plants that will stretch upward to protect and nurture me at home, miles from here. This summer, I’ll lie in the shade of trees that Mike sent me back with two springs ago.

Our friendship is rooted in the earth, in joy. We share plants and our practice.

Who in your life keeps you honest and on the path in being your best self? What does it look like for you to go animal?

 

Exciting stuff is coming, friend. Look for it in May.

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