The Resilient Healing Power of Nature

On my usual neighborhood walks, I often observe the growth of local herbs. One I've followed closely for many years is the Poke (Phytolacca americana) plant shown below. This powerful healing presence grows by the side of the road on a back street near my home.

The interesting aspect to this story is the plant has been completely cut down several times over the years my by neighbors seeking a weed-free street. Just a few months ago, there was nothing left growing above the ground, I mean nothing, but, of course, they never got to the roots of the plant, and with Poke the roots are the power, so in a just a few short weeks, even within a severe drought, the plant has grown back to her former and present glory. 

It pained me a little to see the axe fall so mightily; I had to do a double-take when on my walk one morning the plant was entirely gone, like I knew something was wrong with the mental image my brain was playing on the movie screen in my head, but I didn't know right away exactly what was missing.  

But like I said, I knew they hadn't touched the roots of the plant and I knew she would grow back. This plant being many years old has an extensive root system that would be quite the herculean effort to dig up.

I wish I had taken a before and after shot. I hadn't walked back there all summer, and I was very happy to see such a healthy and vibrant plant had returned to the scene of the crime.


This observation makes me think about the incredible resilience of plants and how that energy must be an integral part of what plants offer us and how they heal us. To possess that much innate strength as to recover from being completely cut down in just a matter of weeks is incredible when you think about it. 

We humans are able to tap into that same energy of renewal against all odds and regeneration as if to rise from any seemingly impossible circumstance when we too align with the power of plants, the forces of creation that can be used for our benefit if we're willing to see beyond the weeds and the wreckage of our lives and allow goodness and new directions to spring forth into our very being: New opportunities arising from the very parts of us perceived as completely wrecked. 

Healing is seeing the possibility of what once was or what will be (even better) when there is no visible evidence to support that perception; in fact our senses and our perceptions may be telling us the opposite is true. We have to trust in the hologram that can be altered or even the parallel universe theory, a slight shift will have a large outcome and alter everything, as if the poke plant above is magically removed and then reinserted into the photograph above.