‘BEING WITH [NATURE],’ NOT MERELY ‘DOING TO’
By Michael J. Roads

There are many ways of doing things, but I want to suggest that you get out of the ‘doing to’ syndrome. I would like to show you that if, with your garden, or animal companion, you have continued with the usual set of routine of ‘doing to,’ instead of consciously ‘being with,’ then you are missing out on one of the most valuable experiences that Nature/Life can offer you. Especially with an intelligent bird like the African Grey!

I personally, do not keep any type of parrot. I always feel that they get attached to their person, and because my wife and I are away from home nearly five months each year on a global tour of giving seminars, it would cause problems. Instead, I have a large aviary in our sub-tropical garden, in which I keep the brilliant multi-colored indigenous Gouldian Finches, along with Red-faced Parrot Finches from New Caledonia. The latter are a dark forest green, with bright red head and breast, very active, with a powerful zest for life. My wife and I also have a wonderful garden. Among other things, I am a gardener.

Basically, no garden is ‘just’ a garden. Nor is a bird ‘just’ a bird. Rather, it is a force of life, with consciousness and awareness, albeit on a very different level than our own. That plant consciousness remains an untapped, unrealized potential to the gardener who is stuck in the ‘doing to’ syndrome. To bring forth that potential, you have to consciously ‘be with’ the plants even while you are ‘doing to.’ Being with and doing to have to become as ONE flow of energy.

For me, this awareness did not just happen. In my earlier years, while farming in Tasmania, I found it impossible to explore new ways of living organically ‘with’ the farm, rather than simply ‘on’ it, and not be powerfully affected by the changes that this invoked. Needless to say, the organic method wove its synthesis of harmony into the fabric of our 444 acre farm, and dairy cows that had previously lived with the usual poor, or low level of health that in today’s farming of agricultural drugs is accepted as normal, became models of animal vitality. I could write long and glowingly about the merits of organic farming, but that is not the reason for this article.

As the soil, the pastures, and the cattle responded to organic principles, so also, on unrealized levels, did I. Gradually, I became aware that I could see a greater potential than is expressed in the normal, everyday farming experience. A potential not so much for greater production, or even improved quality— although these eventually happened— but the potential of a connection between the farmer, and what I term simply as, ‘the Spirit of the Land.’

I became aware of a longing within me, a yearning I hardly understood. Just as young wild geese make their first migration, compelled and guided by an inner blueprint to fly into unchartered regions, so I felt an irresistible longing to charter the comparatively unexplored region between a Human Being and the spiritual force which is NATURE. This longing continued throughout my farming career, implanting deeply within me the awareness that we but scratch the surface of NATURE/LIFE in our daily, unaware state of ‘doing to.’ In life, I had to learn to ‘be with’ whatever it was that I was doing to, while in NATURE I had to become consciously aware of connecting with the plant, animal or bird that I was involved with in any given moment.

None of this was a fast development, but The Spirit of Nature is a very good teacher. I had to learn humility; ‘true’ humility. Not the common false humility–the self deprecation– that sees how little and inadequate we are, but the true humility that is able to see and embrace our greatness, and claim our latent power and abilities. For me, this was a journey into a far greater reality. I have written a quartet of books about the journey, as indicated at the end of this article. Those books are published in up to nine languages. I mention this not as a boast, but to place emphasis on the fact that this unfolding inner search that is taking place in humanity, is universal.

Today my wife, Treenie, and I have no farm; we now have our large garden. And what better place is there to continue growing that inner connection with NATURE, than in a garden? I have learned that there is no room for complacency. To ‘be with’ a garden, you have to literally, be with it consciously as you work in it. No daydreaming. No problems to be regurgitated and reworried over in the garden. No inner dialogue of self criticism, or re-agitating over past events.

All that is required is a clear and ‘open’ mind, and a focus on what it is you’re working with. And this, of course, also applies to a single bird. Let us assume that you are working with an African Grey. As you work, your attention is on what you are doing, as you maintain a focus on the bird that you are working with. This may be feeding them, cleaning the cage, changing the water, caring for their hygiene, or any other of the many jobs that require your time. Always maintain a focus on the bird, and your intent. Let me expand on intent. Everyday, your intent is broadcast for all life to read and register. The only part of life unaware of this is humanity! We are deaf and blind to the subtle expression of intent, while NATURE is wide open to it, and reading its every subconscious message.

Whatever you do in your garden, your intent is known. If you are feeling anger and resentment, all plants register this emotion, and are affected in direct regard to your relationship to them. If you go to dig out some plants, the intent is registered and known as soon as you have made that decision. Nothing in life is isolated. All is ONE, in vast and abundant diversity. Despite this Greater Reality, most people live in a totally unaware state of any such connection.

If, before you go to pick flowers from your garden, you focus on them, and with deliberation imagine the act taking place, thanking them for their cooperation, and the gift of their beauty, then you will develop a conscious connection with your plants which will bring other, and far greater, rewards. Imagine, if you will, just how strong that conscious connection could be with an intelligent bird, if you use the same approach and attitude. Make first, your connection with the consciousness of the bird, trusting yourself and your ability. It is too easy to think that you cannot do this, or it is all just imagination.

Within all this there is a balance to be found. You cannot force an aware connection with a plant, or bird, you can only be aware and focused. If force, want, profit, an emotional need, or any other agenda is involved, then it is part of your silent intent. It is that which is broadcast. Be aware that to make a profit from growing plants, or keeping birds, is not wrong, neither is it right—it simply is. None of this has anything to do with awareness and focus. Remember, what you focus on is what you connect with. If you focus on the bad habits of a bird like an African Grey, then that is your connection with that bird, and it will maintain the habit. If you focus on the good habits, the positive of your bird, then you empower that development.

In my garden, I do not grow any plants as food. Maybe I should expand on that. We grow no plants as food for our stomachs. We do grow plants to deliberately feed our heart and soul. We grow plants for beauty, grace and elegance. We grow them because we love to grow them, because we want them, because together, our life, all life, is enriched. We call our garden a ‘Heart Garden.’ Visitors to our garden often comment on the ‘vibes,’ the ‘feeling’ in the garden. They linger, never quite ready to leave, feeling relaxed and calm. They feel the same energy with the aviary, for these are the birds that I love to keep, admire and care for.

For us, today, a garden is about the blending of energies; the physical with the metaphysical, the plants with the humans, and an overall awareness and appreciation of the garden as a unique and loving expression of a focused and cooperative NATURE. If you have not done so already, give it a try. You will love the difference.