6. Pattern
It is from Scripture that we learn how surpassingly the preceding counsel from Calvin was exemplified in the cosmos-anchored wisdom of Solomon:
It has been noted in cases of brain-damaged children that daily regimes of "patterning" movements can sometimes lead to enhanced brain-functioning. The conviction here is that as healthy infants learn to crawl and walk and gain general motor control, the physical repetition of movement is programming the brain and aiding cognition. The brain of a child with no mobility at this developmental stage may be missing out on this. Some parents of disabled children have gone to great, indeed heroic, lengths to ensure their disabled child has a daily routine of physio to compensate as far as possible for restricted capacity through cerebral palsy or whatever. Cognition is thought to be enhanced by this "patterning". Neural pathways established or enhanced. And if the principle holds at all, does it not hold for all? Daily exercise enhancing not only muscle and heart-function, but also mood and brain-function.
Plants are not static, though we seldom see them move. They don't appear to wave us goodbye (rather difficult to tell!). The wind (ruach, pneuma) of course also activates the trees and garden-shrubs. If we bring together the focus on plants and on their so-very-slow movement it brings to mind T'ai Chi (of which there are various kinds). Again, fears of mythology and mysticism put us on guard (understandably enough). Yet we would have no trouble with a nursery teacher of our kids saying to the class - "I want you to make yourself as small as you can and pretend you are a flower seed. What kind of seed do you want to be? A Tulip? A Daffodil? You are asleep all the cold winter snugly deep in the ground. Now the Spring has come and the warm sun is smiling on you. I want you to slowly, veerry sloooowly open up and stretch upwards...." What exactly is our difficulty as adults (beyond possible social embarrassment!) about an exercise involving the slow graceful movement of our limbs like a tree in a gentle breeze?
A (demystified) nature-focused T'ai-Chi-like routine offers practice in calming the mind, while its low-gear slow-movement patterns, as suggested above, would seem to be therapeutic for the brain. I am well aware that most Western evangelicals would be, by reflex, wary of this. Can we really have a problem with sitting or standing in quietness for a minute or two focusing on a God-created plant, tree, the sea, or other natural form? Surely not! And are not sit-ups, press-ups and jogging also kosher? Yet T'ai-Chi-type slowness is ("spiritually"?) problematic. There seems to be a point, as the speedometer falls, at which a red-light starts flashing on the Western evangelical dashboard. Christianity is rather a fast-lane, top-gear, matter, it seems.
God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore... He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom. (1Kings 4:29-34 NIV)We bring flowers to folk in hospital. Flowers are of course colourful (when we consider lilies we discover that they are not all white). Petals are delicate. They are fragrant. They somehow speak of life. Of calm and balm. One of the many reasons why a plant or tree is consoling may be the matter of pattern. Pattern consists of a shape or colour or sound etc being repeated in series. The beat in music forms a pattern. The repeating days of the week (including the "Day of Rest") form a pattern to our lives. Pattern is reassuring. It signals security. We know where we are with pattern. It is predictable. So we put it on our walls and floors and ties and dresses. But if the sequence is overly uniform the pattern can become too predictable and therefore monotonous. While the beat of a piece of music provides a reassuring "grid" of recurrent sound - a pattern of sound, we of course normally expect a bit of less predictable playfulness (melody) to start bouncing around on this trampoline-grid. The grid is our safety-net. The grid is security. The melody is possibility. The leaves of a plant or tree are both the same and different from each other. An oak-leaf is recognizable as such. But there is no other oak-leaf which is an exact match. Trees may change with the seasons. Plants grow, sprout new leaves. They flower. The plant embodies variation on a theme. The theme is familiar. The variation is fresh. We have security and possibility. Safe adventure. There are patterns of movement also - The Canadian Barn Dance, for example. Predictable. Safe. Yet always the pleasure of the random...
It has been noted in cases of brain-damaged children that daily regimes of "patterning" movements can sometimes lead to enhanced brain-functioning. The conviction here is that as healthy infants learn to crawl and walk and gain general motor control, the physical repetition of movement is programming the brain and aiding cognition. The brain of a child with no mobility at this developmental stage may be missing out on this. Some parents of disabled children have gone to great, indeed heroic, lengths to ensure their disabled child has a daily routine of physio to compensate as far as possible for restricted capacity through cerebral palsy or whatever. Cognition is thought to be enhanced by this "patterning". Neural pathways established or enhanced. And if the principle holds at all, does it not hold for all? Daily exercise enhancing not only muscle and heart-function, but also mood and brain-function.
Plants are not static, though we seldom see them move. They don't appear to wave us goodbye (rather difficult to tell!). The wind (ruach, pneuma) of course also activates the trees and garden-shrubs. If we bring together the focus on plants and on their so-very-slow movement it brings to mind T'ai Chi (of which there are various kinds). Again, fears of mythology and mysticism put us on guard (understandably enough). Yet we would have no trouble with a nursery teacher of our kids saying to the class - "I want you to make yourself as small as you can and pretend you are a flower seed. What kind of seed do you want to be? A Tulip? A Daffodil? You are asleep all the cold winter snugly deep in the ground. Now the Spring has come and the warm sun is smiling on you. I want you to slowly, veerry sloooowly open up and stretch upwards...." What exactly is our difficulty as adults (beyond possible social embarrassment!) about an exercise involving the slow graceful movement of our limbs like a tree in a gentle breeze?
A (demystified) nature-focused T'ai-Chi-like routine offers practice in calming the mind, while its low-gear slow-movement patterns, as suggested above, would seem to be therapeutic for the brain. I am well aware that most Western evangelicals would be, by reflex, wary of this. Can we really have a problem with sitting or standing in quietness for a minute or two focusing on a God-created plant, tree, the sea, or other natural form? Surely not! And are not sit-ups, press-ups and jogging also kosher? Yet T'ai-Chi-type slowness is ("spiritually"?) problematic. There seems to be a point, as the speedometer falls, at which a red-light starts flashing on the Western evangelical dashboard. Christianity is rather a fast-lane, top-gear, matter, it seems.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:1,2 NIV)
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