Dear Jennifer,
Life seems out of control and upside down right now. The 2024 election, the California wildfires, school shootings, the wars in Gaza & Ukraine…the news gets worse and more polarized every day. It feels like we’re losing our moral compass and forgetting how to treat each other with respect. My anxiety is higher than it has ever been. Help?
— Upside Down
Dear Upside Down,
I hear you, fellow traveler. We are living a rough period of US and world history. Historians tell us that we have survived difficult times before and the likelihood is that we will survive this one as well. However, that doesn’t make it any easier to feel our nervous systems get activated today, does it?
Last fall, as the 2024 election results further polarized our country, I participated in my annual tradition of choosing centering words for the upcoming year via answering a deceptively simple fill-in-the-blank sentence:
Next year, I want to bring more _______ into my life.
I honed the list over a two-week period and ended up with a well-revised list of 11 words, which were then mailed to an artist in St. Louis and etched into tumi ishi blocks.
2024 was my sixth year of this activity. All of the “easy” picks had been chosen in previous years…joy, peace, gratitude, compassion, resilience, courage, love, etc. One of my final selections for 2025?
Bamboo.
The Chinese Bamboo Story
I was introduced to the story of the Chinese bamboo farmer many years ago. In case you are unfamiliar with the story, Upside Down, let me summarize the fable as it was told to me.
There once lived a Chinese farmer who exchanged a chicken for some seeds that the seller promised would yield a bountiful crop. The farmer returned home, prepared his land, planted his seeds…and waited. He watered his seeds every day. One year went by…and he waited. Another year went by…and he waited. A third year passed…no crops. The farmer continued to water his seeds, and his neighbors laughed at him. After the fourth year passed without a bloom, the farmer suspected that he had been swindled but continued to care for his crops. One morning, in the fifth year, the farmer awoke and begrudgingly pulled himself out of bed to go water the crops. He found that the bamboo had sprouted. Within weeks, it grew taller and soon the farmer’s house was surrounded by a beautiful bamboo forest.
It turns out that underneath the soil, the seeds were spouting tendrils that were nurtured by the farmer’s daily watering and were developing into complex root systems. I once read that bamboo is difficult to kill. The complex root systems intentionally entangle and foster interdependence, which allows the bamboo stalks to grow tall, stand strong, and to sway when the wind blows forcefully.
Why Bamboo, Why Now
It is a good centering word on January 20, 2025, as we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., inaugurate a new president, continue to battle wildfires in Los Angeles, and struggle to find peace and common ground with our fellow Americans who cast votes a few months ago that differed from ours.
What “Be the Bamboo” Looks Like in Daily Life
- Mindfulness and self-reflection: Journal, pray, or practice emotional curiosity for 5–10 minutes a day. Move your body—walks, stretching, breathwork—to downshift anxiety and process big feelings. Presence is our nutrient; it steadies us amid alarming headlines.
- Strengthen your roots (community): Prioritize connection and service. Join a local effort, check on a neighbor, attend a community meeting, volunteer. Entangle your roots with others—shared purpose adds stability and courage.
- Curate your inputs: Choose a small set of credible news sources and set time limits. Avoid doom-scrolling and late-night consumption. Replace “constant checking” with scheduled, intentional updates.
- Practice values in motion: When in doubt, act from your core values—kindness, fairness, integrity, compassion. Small, consistent actions accumulate like root fibers: they hold you (and us) together.
- Hold the long view: Bamboo teaches patience. Today’s watering may feed a forest you cannot yet see. Our children may stand in the shade of what we nurture now.
A Compassionate Reality Check
Yes, Upside Down, we are living in anxiety-generating times and there is a reality basis to your worries and fears as we witness the effects of climate change, inflation, and legal pendulum swinging. Take a deep breath and reach for your inner bamboo. Feel the strength, feel the flexibility, honor both the roots that ground and connect it and the leaves that reach upward.
Be the bamboo, dear one. Ubuntu.
— Jennifer
