RESILIENCE: The ability to adapt well to adversity.

 

Having spent the last couple of years painting from coastal landscapes around Sydney and Pittwater, I have observed the constant cycle of resilience and renewal in nature. Despite the vigorous competition for good light, clean water, and nutrient rich soil, life goes on in some form or another. 

 

In the Australian bush, the result of this competition is not always tidy or fair. Some plants help each other, communicating above and below the ground, some strangle and destroy their host, and some find a symbiotic arrangement that allows an accommodation of host and client. Branches twist and turn and rocks fall, creating weird and wonderful forms. Decay and renewal are part of the story, often providing homes for new residents, including insects, birds, mammals and sea creatures.

 

Observing this resilience leads me back to the Japanese notion of transience or impermanence: Mujō 無常. It reflects the reality that ecosystems are constantly changing and that nothing lasts forever.  Climate and seasons change, trees and branches fall, plants and rocks erode, soil and sand are formed. Impermanence is the driving force behind the continuous cycle of life, death, and regeneration.

 

As populations grow and we navigate an increasingly complex world, it is important to preserve our natural bushland wherever possible now, and for future generations. For the joy and spiritual sustenance nature provides and for the important lessons about life that nature can teach us all.