Strength in the pivot

Some of my favorite moments of the week are spent tending my houseplants. Especially in the cold months, their warm tones are a kind contrast to winter’s harsh, glaring sun.

Two weeks after moving several plants to the master bathroom’s east-facing window, making room for the Christmas tree on the west side of the home, I noticed the plants’ strongest stems had made a pivot toward the closest window. I also noticed the pivot point was much stronger and thicker compared to the rest of the stems, just at its gentle, purposeful turning. Who would I be if I hadn’t stopped to ponder the similarity between strength in the plants’ pivoting stems, and how pivots in our lives can provide opportunities for strengthening as we reach toward better conditions.

My research shed light (pun intended) on a natural phenomenon called phototropism.  A hormone called auxin communicates to the cells in the shaded part of the stem that they must stretch. When they do so, it creates an area of strength necessary to support the growth of the stem as it reaches toward the light. The sunlight invites the plant to pivot, but the strength is created because of the shade, and in the shade!

Here’s the object lesson for us- We can build strength during times of change to support ourselves on a new path toward better conditions.  Whether by choice, or by some other force, we all experience change. It may be a change of status, location, ability, responsibility, and/or any combination of other circumstances. Change, however big or small, creates stress (shade), communicating to us the potential need for a pivot toward better conditions.  In the shade, our internal mechanisms (cued by stress) invite and/or urge us to pivot toward these better conditions.

When you experience one of life’s inevitable changes, how will you develop the strength needed to grow in a new direction?