Learning from what cannot be seen

2 Corinthians 4. 13 - 5.1

...because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Yesterday I came upon another one of Krista Tippett's excellent ON BEING podcasts, but this one was even more stellar than most. In it, I learned a fabulous new word: Biomimicry

"Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges—and find hope."

In the podcast (attached below) Krista interviews two women who are studying and teaching biomimicry as a process of understanding strategies nature uses which can be mimicked by us on our planet to enhance our survival. From their website, I include the following description.

"Biomimicry offers an empathetic, interconnected understanding of how life works and ultimately where we fit in. It is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies used by species alive today. After billions years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what remains hold the secret to our survival. The goal is to create products, processes, and systems—new ways of living—that solve our greatest design challenges sustainably and in solidarity with all life on earth. We can use biomimicry to not only learn from nature’s wisdom, but also heal ourselves—and this planet—in the process."

As I read the lessons appointed for today, I was reminded of the holiness of what cannot be seen in our relationships...with each other, with the natural world, with God. And as the author of 2 Corinthians says, "what cannot be seen is eternal." In this study of biomimicry, they are discovering the intricate details of the unseen relationships between different species and ecosystems and how they heal themselves and each other.

It would serve us all well to look closely at nature's wisdom, attuned to this practice of biomimicry, letting go of that which is temporary and clinging to that which is eternal.

https://onbeing.org/programs/janine-benyus-and-azita-ardakani-walton-on-natures-wisdom-for-humanity/