“A garden’s beauty never lies in one flower.” – Matshona Dilwayo
Biodiversity, or biological diversity is – the variety of life. It is the richness of our prolific planet that creates the enchanted, entangled web of life and breeds boundless abundance and beauty. Biodiversity exists throughout all levels of life from the genome of individual organisms to the elaborate integration of entire ecosystems. Bountiful biodiversity is essential to sustaining stable, well-functioning ecosystems, as well supporting the significant services from nature that benefit humans.
Species diversity is one level of biodiversity. Species diversity refers to the number of different species that are present in a community. We measure species diversity by species richness (variety) and species evenness (how many). Species diversity contributes to stability and balance in a community by adding complexity – complexity in genetics, in form and structure, and in energy and nutrient cycling – the food web. The more biologically complex a community, the more resilient and resistant to disturbances, like disease, habitat changes, and climate change effects. Complexity reinforces resilience. It is like that with humans. As we add complexity to our life, we become more resilient and able to rebound from difficult situations. We build diversity in our health and well-ness through nourishing our physical body with a variety of healthy foods and daily movement. Our emotional body becomes resilient as we build our self-awareness, process our trauma and “baggage,” open our hearts to connect fully and authentically with others, and embrace our gifts and talents to engage in the activities, hobbies, and inspired work that fills our life with joy and gratitude. We acknowledge and celebrate the diversity of the human collective – stories, strengths, talents, and unique perspectives – cultivating deeper connections and growing our community. Our spiritual body supports us as we explore our beliefs and values and expand our thoughts. Our ecological body is our relationship with nature. As we deepen our connection to the natural world, acknowledge our purpose and part in a larger system, tap into the feelings and emotions that nature’s wisdom so readily shares with us, we strengthen our sense of kinship and belonging to the world around us. It is here where we find our foundation of support, balance, and resilience. It is here where we re-integrate ourselves into our source of life. It is here, at the intersection of our physical, emotional, spiritual, and ecological bodies where we live in harmony, balance, and full well-ness.
Along with species diversity, growth in form and structure is a characteristic of communities that supports stability and balance. It is layers of assorted, scaffolded support that creates stability across the community. For example, the form and structure of a forest – canopy to forest floor – supports diversity in species habitat, communication, and food source. It provides consistent, cooperative, stable resources for all the living organisms of the forest, trees to fungi. Humans need growth in form and structure as well. Cultivating a strong web of support and structure in our daily lives is important for our stability and balance. As biological communities grow in their form and structure, we can look forward and backward in time to their succession. We, as a species, can reflect on our collective and individual developmental succession – our history and future – from many perspectives in hopes that we can build and support diverse communities, both human and biological, as we create policy and plan to guide us on a healthy, balanced, sustainable path for the higher good of our planet and all its beings.
How does the human species, as a large, pervasive population, and our relationship with nature play into this intricate dance, the eternal ebb and flow, the balance, or dynamic equilibrium, not only within the natural world, but within ourselves? Relationships in nature are countless, complex, and cryptic. Much of the natural world remains uncertain and mysterious. As humans have proliferated every part of the planet, we have lost ourselves in our own agenda. Our interactions with our beloved planet lack acknowledgement, reverence, reciprocity, and thought. We have upset the balance through our dis-integration. We are responsible for devastating habitat destruction, prolific pollution, growing global warming and climate change, obnoxious over-use of resources, and significant species loss that contributes to the chaos and unbalance around us. Even in our own individual existence, our lack of purposeful and intentional connections to ourselves, to nature, and to other humans has left us in a state of unbalanced dis-ease. To definitively move our story forward, we must honor the complexity of the world around us, embrace biodiversity, concede to the unknown, and cultivate our sense of kinship with the world around us.