Every year February is a month of celebration here. In addition to personal anniversaries (wedding, Reiki Mastery) and social (Valentine’s Day), we are celebrating the budding of early spring. In California, the seasons are shorter and we begin to see the first blooms of spring popping up to bring joy to every day!
Mushrooms are also springing up out of the ground in February. Walking around the property and seeing the different types of mushrooms is exciting every year. We always see something new that hasn’t been there before. This year, we have seen two new types of mushrooms.
Their shapes, colors and energetic signatures are all so unique. Sometimes their appearance is fleeting – here one day and gone the next. Other times, we witness their gradual growth and then a decline as they decay over a period of days.
Fungi and mushrooms are known to have strong underground networks that move unseen throughout the earth. Their resilience and benefit to all of life has recently been recognized. Much is to be learned from these fungal networks.
Fungi spread many beneficial communications through their connections with other plants. They process dead material which helps give nutrients to the soil supporting healthy plant growth and resistance to disease. Through the mycelial highway, mature trees assist the survival and growth of young ones. Chemical signals are released as communication between plants along the mycelia. Neighboring plants, even across large distances, help each other through the ongoing communication network.
Because the plants are sharing resources, there can be competition between them. This results in using this network for stealing nutrients that drain a neighboring plant. When this occurs, members of the same plants will communicate about the threat and help each other survive.
There is a lot to be said for observing and mimicking the fungal networks. Especially during such stressful, life-changing times, we must consider the importance of maintaining our human connections. What are the benefits?
• Relationship between older and younger
• Resistance to disease
• Sharing of resources
• Awareness of others, not being alone
• Notification of danger
Just like within the community of fungi, our human community can spread or give resistance to disease. In the past year, people have been feeling the dominant theme of danger from contact with others. The problem is, that this fear is overriding the awareness of our need for contact. Overwhelming anxiety and extreme reactions are creating a different kind of dis-ease to spread.
Acknowledging the two sides of human contact – potential danger and sustenance – is important to create a healthy relationship with others. When we have the capacity to trust our own perceptions – unmolested by the seduction of fear, we are better able to make good decisions about social interactions.
The web of human connection can be filled with opportunities to love and be loved, to gain and to lose. Staying open to being connected at a distance and in person, without hiding our fear behind a mask, is of utmost importance as the world finds its way out of the crisis state we have been living in for the past year. Stay clear. Deepen your trust and faith!
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