Note: Sometimes we are not aware of the ripples we set in motion. And sometimes we are lucky to see them played out.

Reciprocity is a deep instinct; it is the basic currency of social life.
  - Jonathan Haidt 

Nature mirrors life.  She presents patterns of mutualism: giving and receiving, thus promoting life.  Plants, trees, roots, bees, boy, girl, you and I all join in a solidarity of purpose: elevating life. 

Did You Know? Trees, plants and rainforests provide 28% of the oxygen we breathe. The other 72% comes from plant life in the ocean. Phytoplankton, a tiny marine plant alone is responsible for 50% of that.

Plants provide oxygen and we return the favor by emitting carbon dioxide.  

Every exhale says, "I give to you as you give to me."  

Look deep into Nature and you will understand everything better.
                                           ----Albert Einstein

The Journey: Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.  (Lao Tzu)

We are quite impatient to know, to see, to become, to hit the skip button, as though life were a series to binge-watch. We want to know what is around each bend, looking for the shortcut.

Are we so hurried that we want to speed by pivotal life lessons?  
What if life's treasures are found on the road we are traveling right now? 

We grow through what we go through.
----Christopher Willard

Our Enigmatic Journey: A Powerhouse of Motion in Stillness 

Nature is also our metaphor for growth.  Consider underground roots and bulbs that we consume such as beets, carrots, sweet potatoes and radishes. In their fixed state of apparent stillness, they truly are powerhouses of motion.  

Planted in the spring with October's harvest a vague promise on a distant horizon, roots and bulbs remain in the dark, invested in time.  There is no hurry.  

Yet they are engaged, absorbing rich minerals from the soil until the appointed times to send nutrients and water up the stems to the flowers and leaves above ground, a world yet hidden from them.  When harvest approaches, they will push their way upward from the dark underground to breathe crisp new air with their crowns riding the wind.  

How I long for their wisdom and their patience. What to absorb.  When to push upwards. When to emerge.

Our Own Ripening

And so, it is with us.
Ideas mature gradually. 
Often in stillness. 
Let them grow.
Let them absorb life.
Let them shape themselves, 
Without undue haste.
For harvest comes in appointed time.
Don’t try to force it upward.

As though we could be today what time
Will make of us tomorrow.
     
--- Pierre de Chardin

We are on a journey to keep an appointment with ourselves.
                         ~ Gene Roddenberry

The thing you are ripening toward is the fruit of your life.  Come harvest, your shining light will make the world a brighter place. 
                           ~ Stewart Edward White

These words sum up everything we need to know about life: 
It Goes On . . .. because we Preserve the Best.    

(Robert Frost) 

Mirroring and Preserving the Best

In the remarkable perspective of time, something or someone comes along and we are held in a powerful awareness of purpose.  A new dawn.  How did it find us? Or was it always there, waiting?

Sixth Grade, 1969. 
Mr. B, Ricky Ventura, and John Adair (student) 

Mr. B wanted his sixth-grade class to meet his life-long friend, Ricky Ventura.  This would not be an ordinary introduction.  Ricky had multiple physical challenges.  But Mr. B. wanted his class to see the person, not the handicap.

John Adair: "Ricky came into our 6th grade classroom, and we were all stunned. I looked around to see my classmates' reactions. They seemed to be in shock.  Ricky, full grown was about 4 feet tall with a crutch firmly attached to each arm.  He would advance his crutches, then thrust his under-developed legs, propelling himself forward.  But then something changed.  It was the way Mr. B interacted with Ricky. I watched how my classmates went from their initial reaction to a steady interest of the man. Ricky Ventura and Mr. B were best buds and that's how we began to see him.  We saw a remarkable man.  And we began to understand what Mr. B intended: that disabilities do not define a person. Without question, life presented Ricky with enormous mountains to climb, and he faced them with bold courage."

 "Mr. B teased and joked with him. He told stories of how Ricky played football with the gang* (See stories below).  By his example, in our sixth-grade classroom, Mr. B had every student looking beyond Ricky's physical limitations."

"And right then and there, everything changed for me.  At that young age, sitting at my desk I felt gripped with purpose. My life’s story was splaying out before me as though the next chapters were writing themselves . . . and I knew . . .I knew I would be a teacher of the disabled, to lift them up and replicate what I experienced that day, that moment in my classroom.

(Note: As an Adaptive PE Specialist and football coach, John had many moments that exemplified what he learned in that 6th grade classroom. One such story is written below. His teaching career working with and empowering the disabled would span almost 40 years.) 

Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects, if we give it time.
                                        ~ Dalai Lama

Coach John Adair
Varsity Football, Fall 2005
Locker Room Message 
Last Game of the Year

John Adair: There was a new student in our Special Day Class who hardly ever spoke. With Down's Syndrome, CP (cerebral palsy) and being self-conscious about his speech, he kept his head down and preferred the safety of silence.

He and I shared the same first name. One day in early fall, acting on sheer impulse, I asked him,

"John, how would you like to be a football manager?"

He beamed. And for the next 8 years, albeit quietly, he performed his duties carrying cones and other equipment with an occasional "yes sir" or "sure thing".  The players, the other coaches and I came to enjoy his sense of purpose. We witnessed his inner courage. In every task he exuded joy and pride, just to be part of the team.  

It was the last game of the season and also John’s last day with the team. At 22, he had reached the age to exit the Special Day Class. In the locker room, getting ready to face our arch rival, the Buffalos, the importance of the day hung heavy. 

Every coach knows that in moments like this, a big rivalry, the last game of the season, and the last game for seniors, it's not just about the score at the end of the game.  It's looking your teammates in the eye and expressing your heart. One by one, each senior spoke about what the team meant to him, the highs, the lows and the life lessons. We knew this was a moment they would carry with them throughout their lives. 

But we were not prepared for the next speaker.

Out of the blue and totally out of character, John surprised me by asking if he could say a few words to the team. Sitting in our circle on those hardened benches in that dimly lit room, we sat spellbound as John began to speak.  Some of his words may have been slurred or maybe slightly mispronounced, but the message from his heart was loud and clear.

"I love this school and I love you. Being your manager has been an honor and the proudest and best part of my life.  Now, here's what I want you to do. Go out there and KICK SOME BUFFALO ASS!"

We choked up and unabashedly shed tears straight from our hearts.  It was then I knew that my players saw John, the person, not his limitations.  In his role as team manager, growing in confidence and life skills, he had been transformed. He was forever changed but . . . just as importantly, so were we.  

Soon we would all be walking out through the exit door. I wondered what ripples created here were now set in motion.  What would we carry with us as we left this old and inauspicious room.  Perhaps something transformational.   

Fulfilling John's request, we did "kick their ass" and at the end of the game, in sheer jubilation, the players picked up John and raised him high above our heads, parading him like the champion he was.  It was an unforgettable moment for him, the players, the coaches, the fans, his proud parents in the stands and for me.  

And from out of nowhere, my brain presented me with a split screen as the mind's eye sometimes does, when it reaches back to pull up the best of our experiences. There was John before me, heralded as a hero on the field and alongside that, in an instant replay was another scene from long ago.  Another setting.  A classroom.  Decades ago.  Mr. B and Ricky Ventura.

Community:  

Everyone needs a sense of teamwork, of belonging. One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.
                                     ~ Jean Vanier

Be grateful for those who come into our lives, showing us the way, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. 
                          ----- Rumi

We are the late harvest, invested in time. 
Absorbing and knowing, rooted and growing. 
Rippling vortexes, charged and blessed. 
A Life of Reciprocity,
Preserving the Best.
---g. hill

A special acknowledgement to people on my journey who have helped to shape my own understandings of growth as I worked on this theme. They truly live a life of giving and receiving. 

My wonderful Music Makers who enrich my life with song and musings. Meaningful conversations on this theme with Lana, Lauren, Judy, Dianne, Pat, Iris and Nancy, to name a few.  And the guiding light of all teachers, especially Don (Mr. B), John Adair and Ricky Ventura. 

The best of you is already preserved.  

The Reciprocal Life  
The lines between giving and receiving so blurred 
that the soul rises to claim its highest self.

I give to you, as you give to me. 
That is love, forever true.
                                          -----Song lyrics, True Love

Delivered by Mr. B., Don Brubaker, at Ricky's funeral.

"We often played tackle football in a back yard or on the field along the railroad tracks. He loved the competition and contact.  He never asked for special treatment in any of the sports we played …. with one exception. He asked for one unusual rule.  He said, “If the guy with the football breaks through the line and I’m the only defender between him and the goal line he has to run over, not around me.”  As the year passed, we got bigger and stronger, but the rule stayed in place.  Rick always went for the legs.  If he grabbed one, he wouldn’t let go, and the runner would drag him until the teammate finished the job.   It was like a death grip when he got both legs.  The runner was going nowhere!"    

"Ricky faced a multitude of seemingly impossible challenges, and he faced them like they were merely bumps in the road; starting with his birth. The doctors gave him a day or two to live, then a few weeks.  But “Ricky" surprised them all.  A fighter was born; a fighter who would teach us all how to live.  Rick wasn’t just a friend to all of us.  He was family.  His spiritual presence and the impact he had on us will live in our hearts forever."



__________________________________________________________________________________

Note:  Do you have a role model who faces (faced) life with courage and a spirit of purpose? If their story of resiliency resonates with you, lifting you up as you navigate your own challenges, then the best of them will live on through you.   ---g. hill      

Resources, Music and Additional Notes

Images are from clip art, pixabay.com or AI generated.

See also, Elevation, and Within Our Reach

Elevation

Within Our Reach

More about Reciprocity of Nature

Native Americans referred to living plants as "those who take care of us". 
                   ----Robin Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Root: Turmeric and Ginger, taking care of Us

Key Benefits of Turmeric

• Rich in Nutrients: It contains dietary fiber, protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins (C, B3, K), and minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium). 
• Antioxidant Properties:, which help combat oxidative stress in the body. 
• Anti-Inflammatory Effects: 
• Heart Health: Turmeric can lower the risk of heart disease by improving heart health. 
• Brain Health: It may enhance memory and cognitive function, potentially reducing the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. . 

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Key Benefits of Ginger

1. Anti-inflammatory in conditions such as arthritis and muscle aches.
2. Nausea from motion sickness, pregnancy, gut issues including reducing vomit reflex.
3. Digestive Health by stimulation saliva and bile to break down nutrients, reducing bloating and gas and soothing the digestive tract.
4. Weight Management by boosting metabolism and suppressing appetite.
5. Pain Relief including menstrual cramps. headaches and premenopausal conditions.
6. Immune Support to ward off infection and illness.
7. Heart Health by lowering cholesterol, improving blood pressure and enhancing circulation.

The Three Sisters is a wonderful example of the reciprocal life that exists in nature. When planted together, corn, beans and squash create a mutually beneficial environment of balance and cooperation.   

Corn, the eldest sister, provides a tall stalk for the beans to climb on. This helps the beans grow and provides a support structure for the squash. The second sister, beans, enrich the soil by fixing nitrogen, which is essential for the health of corn and squash. The youngest sister, squash, wraps around the other two plants to provide shade and support. It also helps to block sunlight and prevent weeds, which can help retain soil moisture. 

 Another important lessons nature provides exemplifying working together for mutual benefit and the value of nature's harmony, discovered by Native Americans, who shared this knowledge with the early settlers. Centuries later, botanists validated the science that underscores the mutualism of The Three Sisters.