Reaction vs. Response

By JEFF FRANK

Reaction vs. response is a thought that many confuse as being the same. We react or respond to sickness, we react or respond to a bully, we react or respond to a crisis in our life, either or, it doesn’t matter, we think. However, it does matter because they mean two distinctly different things. At the school for Environmental Horticulture called the “Lyceum”, we teach that there is a very big difference in the words and the response to a situation makes all the difference in the world. For years Superintendents and other Horticulture folk reacted to a dis-ease by starting up the toxic genetic chemical fungicide and spraying the turf to kill the microbe causing the dis-ease. Later by observation we realize we have been treating the patient wrong, we studied the soil more and found out the cause of the problem was simple Mal-nutrition. Not simple to the dying soil where the least successful microbe is now the top dog because actually the fungicide has killed all the other soil life that would naturally keep the pathogens in order, and controlled, as much as modern, healthy civilizations keep themselves healthy by controlling the bad microbes we call criminals. So we react and spray the deadly junk and by the time the applicator is rolling up his hose the microbes have already spawned another generation of fungicide resistant bugs that now have to use heavier doses of toxic genetic chemicals and we neither control or eradicate the dis-ease . However, we have weakened the soil further and more problems result. That’s a reaction; a Response would be to feed the soil. In nature weeds, insects and dis-ease are indicators of mal-nutrition. In response, we study the problem, we don’t have a knee jerk reaction to anything we see because we feel in nature all is a response from some other area and we have to see the whole picture, and we can’t until we slow down and respond. It’s also not really to slow down it actually clears the way for better analysis and ultimately answers.

The unknown comes from the future never the past. We deal with these unknown situations with our past thinking, our paradigms or road maps that got us to this point, but now that past is old information. We need new information and that only comes from being mindful and timeless, rather than timeful and mindless. We have to deal with the crisis as the Chinese do; they realize each crisis is either danger or opporturnity. Choose to see the situation in a new way, that you create the future.

Alexander the Great earned his title “Great” in the way he responded to each moment as all great commanders do. Alexander would look at what we refer today as “Mindfulness”. He lived in the moment, saw each moment as it unfolded as a completely new situation, even if he had similar or studied commanders before him that faced similar situations, Alexander would find a new solution. Once at a battle, Alexander’s’ army of 45,000 faced the Persians with possibly over a million men. A full eclipse of the Moon started and Alexander used it to tell his men “it was a sign from Heaven that the Greeks, tomorrow, would eclipse the Persians”, and he did just that in the first forty-five minutes of the battle. Alexander responded to the changing situation and used a potentially deadly omen and turned it to his advantage. Response is the “measured” thought to any situation. It’s looking at our own problems in a perhaps new and different way that is more “common sense and low tech”, as we say at the school, “organics are a response”.

When we face situations in our own lives that we have happen to us repeatedly, try using “Mindfulness”. Respond with silence. Take a deep breath; let it out, breath again. Think about breathing and how good it is for you and that a few seconds can change your life, but to get there you have to practice using response, which in turn, means you have “Response-abilty”. Very few have the ability to respond, so they react, which means they went back to a pattern already in the brain. Knee jerk, remember? WE are creatures of habit and that’s reaction! In our lives if we use response-abilty in our thinking and acting, then we will have no worries as to how our lives will go, because response brings greatness to the situation. A peaceful, an ultimate knowing that the solution is lurking in the problem, and we must find it. With response, we deal with the causes rather than effects, and once faced down never rears its ugly head. It means we have a way to conquer our fears by simple breathing. Shutting down the inner dialogue which is confusing us by “it” wanting to react. It’s being kind when you could have been truthful. It’s not saying the thing that you know pushes the wrong button. When your day is tough and you get that person on the phone that doesn’t know the bad news you just got. You take that breath. Bring the thoughts back home and maybe think; maybe she just lost someone too, we never know.

In Horticulture, we use “responsibility” in our responses to weeds, insects and dis-ease and use cultural ways to remedy the situation in the soil.

We need the proper sunshine, water, organic food and healthy information for our minds. WE have to live more in the present moment, for ultimately, that is where we do live; however, we mostly live in forgetfulness, which is the future and the past. WE are learning to live more presently and responding to life instead of reacting, however, it takes a lot of practice in Response-abilty, a desire to create a positive change in a natural way

Vaya con Dios