The dance

Recovering over-achiever that I am, I am currently reading 'Botany for Gardeners' by Brian Capon (although not the shiny new edition this links to). Chapter One: Cells and Seeds. He explains things clearly to scientifically ignorant folk like me and it's not his fault that parts of cells have names like plasmodesmata, organelles and chloroplast.

Cells are pretty amazing - the capabilities of a "large factory, capable of manufacturing thousands of different and elaborate products from simple raw materials" squeezed into a teeny tiny box with sides measuring 1 2,000th of an inch. And of course being composed of cells is one thing that all living things, plants, animals, humans, have in common.

Cells divide to help us grow and heal: the DNA "becomes organized into sets of thread-like structures": chromosomes. These chromosomes "go through an elaborate dance sequence, culminating in matched chromosome parts being segregated" into the two new cells. Just imagine lots of little chromosome dances going on right now all over your body, and all over your houseplants too. And your dog. (And if you can't imagine, watch this loopy video from the 1970's. I have no idea what it's about, but it seems to be vaguely related. And they clearly had a magical time making it, not that they remembered the next day.)

So this means our bodies are constantly generating new cells to keep our skin on and to heal us. It makes sense to me that this process could apply to our emotional and spiritual health as well as our physical well-being. Now I don't know if our 'souls' are just parts of our brain or some other ethereal thing: it doesn't really matter whether it's literal or metaphorical, it seems we have the inbuilt ability and desire to heal ourselves.

The least we can do is not get in the way.