Musings on ‘Holism’ from my 5 year old son

Before my son could write his name, he could communicate something I only really grasped in graduate school. 

I was astonished by the words scribed in the corner by his preschool teacher -his description of his drawing:

“This tree grows from the whole earth”.

I felt the words echo through my whole being, as he showed me his work with his usual bright-eyed smile. I grinned back in astonishment, he couldn’t be more apt or have said it anymore beautifully than that. 

In his few words he clearly described the world in a nutshell. Life emerges out of the whole web of life. 

This phenomenon we all find ourselves enmeshed in is the same for the tree, the snail, the great blue whale, or my five year old son. 

Any living being, can not exist without being of the ‘whole’. The ‘whole’ is the planet, or on a smaller scale, the ecosystem that provides the clean air, water, food and building blocks for life. How interesting the details in his picture- the blue ‘air’, the sun, the black ‘soil’-Indeed all those elements are part of making the tree. 

‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, is key to this ‘holism’ story. For instance, a bicycle (in this case the ‘whole’) can propel only when all parts work together-the pedals, the wheels, the brakes, the rider, the food to fuel the exercise. 

The ‘motion’ is the incredible emergent characteristic of the ‘whole’, otherwise not possible, just like ‘life’ emerging out of the earth as its ‘parts’ work together. 

Amazingly so, the ‘parts’ constantly feed back into the wellbeing of the ‘whole’. The give and take. The bicycle can not move without the rider, pedals, wheels, oxygen…. The earth can not give life if the plants don’t photosynthesise, the worms don’t turn the soil, the moss doesn’t pave way for forests, if life doesn’t cycle… 

The tree emerges from the whole, and continually gives back by way of oxygen, food, carbon storage, cooling temperatures, homes for insects, fungi …

Can we heed the call from our children’s subtle reminders to live into wholeness? 

Can we give back more to the whole out of which we live, and lives out of us? 

Thank you my children for making and teaching me to be whole.