A dandelion seed head – did you ever play with one, blowing the seeds off and counting the number of blows it took to scatter them all, saying that the number equalled the time of day? We even called the dandelion seeds like this a “dandelion clock”.
Strange game when you think about it. Was there ever a relationship between the number of puffs and the hours of the day?
Yet, this image remains a powerful symbol of the passage of time, and hence of change.
It’s one of my favourite images.
i don’t know if you have ever stopped to think about what the inevitability of change really means. You might be surprised to know that it’s only in fairly recent times that scientists have begun to describe the universe in a historical and evolutionary way. Before this understanding there has been a way of thinking based on the idea of permanent laws – laws of physics, laws of the universe, laws of Nature – laws which don’t change. But this idea is undermined by the discovery that the universe is constantly changing. As it changes, it changes itself, because we have also discovered that everything is connected, that there are no “essential fixed, unchanging elements” which are the raw materials or building blocks on which these so-called laws act.
This new understanding shifts the focus from being to becoming, and gives becoming primacy.
All is in a constant process of becoming.
There are no fixed states. There are no permanent entities. There are no unchanging laws.
Yes, there is what endures. Yes, through our lifetimes there is plenty which seems to last. But ultimately, if you take a longer term perspective, nothing endures. Nothing is fixed.
Some people might find this scary. Some people might find the uncertainty this brings hard to handle. But I find it stimulating. Understanding the inescapable nature of change helps you to become aware of emergence – life is in a continual process of emergence – constantly producing the new, constantly creating.
It’s this connection between impermanence, change, emergence and creativity which excites me.
Shifting the emphasis from being to becoming, shifts your focus to the processes of creation. It also moves the attention away from objects and onto connections/relationships and actions. (See my series on this blog under the A to Z of becoming title, for practical ways to explore this)
This “dandelion clock” becomes a symbol of change, and so one of creation – after all it is a SEED head, literally bursting with potential new lives.
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