The Recipe
Is it simple? Or complicated?
Remember when ”life hacks” wear were on every screen?
They tended to go along with the “You’re doing it wrong” video clips.
That was several years ago. Now we know better. Or at least have achieved, lost, gained, or learned everything.
Back then it was assumed that there would be a “hack” for everything and we would have no more annoying glitches in our lives.
Along with that, we, all of us, would finally, do it all “right”.
I am writing this in the middle of 2026, when, as far as the eye can see, contention, division, violence, chaos, dissatisfaction, evasion, manipulation, deception and a few dozen more negative to terrifying human characteristics seem to be unending, unrepentant, and, of course, on full public display.
The “hacks” that promised to save us, have congealed into immovable strategies and techniques that are, in most cases, far worse than the problem they promised to resolve.
And doing it “right”?
Bumbling, corrupt incompetence seems to be the rule of the day.
But what if there were a simpler system?
Those who study animals have noticed a near universal, underlying theme; creatures in their natural habitat thrive. Those in captivity, withdraw, exhibit compulsive behaviors, and in many cases, self-destruct.
Are human beings so different?
We humans tend to use the term “animal’ as an insult when applied to a person.
We tend to imply some kind of violent, out of control, viciousness.
But if you have ever seen the vast majority of animals in the wild, most are content, attentive, focused, cooperative, and unlike most humans I observe, quietly attentive, and at rest.
Most humans I see are in desperate need of this state of attentive calm.
And they are all too willing to pay for it. If they could find it.
But animals don’t pay for it. And they do find it.
I think we could learn something from our animal companions – especially the ones that don’t need us.
Animals, at a visceral level, know where they belong.
Stress is exceedingly rare in the animal kingdom – except when it is warranted. A fire or a predator might set off survival strategies and responses.
But if you see humans in their habitats, most seem to boil and simmer in a constant state of stress and anxiety – and, somehow disconnected from the present. Humans tend to worry about the future, obsess about the past, and thoroughly miss the immediate present.
I would argue that life and existence – especially for human beings comes down to these six elements; Beauty. Wonder. Curiosity. Understanding. Agency. Service.
What region of the world is not, in its natural state at least, stunningly, austerely, achingly beautiful?
What baby, what child, what wild animal or plant, when fully seen and recognized, is not beautiful. For some adults, it might take some due diligence, but yes, inexplicable beauty can be found there as well.
Where in the natural world is wonder not seen? From rushing wind, to rain falling out of a blue/grey sky to a tree towering – or just beginning – life is packed with incomprehensible miracles and puzzles.
Children are instinctively curious. Many of us, as adults have become numb to the unexplainable mysteries around us. From our own hearts pounding to the stare of a cat, immense puzzles are all around us if we dare to see them.
Understanding, or at least coming to terms with the limits of our capacity to understand is an achievement few of us seem to achieve.
What child, what wild animal, who of us, does not find ourselves most fully when we embrace our own, individual, borderline sacred, agency?
And who, or what are we, when we have lost it?
And to take all of that, and put it in the hands and needs of a hurting world, that is the glory and wonder of service.
Each one of these elements (or aspects) is freely available to any of us; no studies, no income, no age, no entry cost is required for any of them.
We humans love to put labels, costs, qualifying criteria or some screening of ‘being worthy’ on everything from food to health care to recognition as a citizen – or even fellow human being.
The literal real world doesn’t care about any of our categories and definitions.
No matter what you wear, or earn or believe, the world stands before us as something like a portal, a mirror, or some kind of transit point.
Consider the act of going out – into a city, into a neighborhood, into a park or wilderness or even a waterway – how many of those variables you encounter, from rainstorm to dogs being walked to leaves fluttering in a slight breeze to a thousand more, will be the same, or even will exist the next time you venture out?
Consider Beauty, Wonder, Curiosity, Understanding, Agency, and Service as active “ingredients” in a walk around a neighborhood.
Or you could do what I have been known to do; sometimes on a neighborhood walk I find myself staring at a tree. Its deep and bright green branches against the sky, have stood there, or somehow flexibly hovered there, for decades – maybe longer. Maybe much longer.
Those trees don’t have what we would consider “eyes”, but they have “seen” in their own way, history and seasons, and storms and human aspirations and projects passing by.
We, even those of us who stop and linger, are like flies buzzing in their shadows.
They “know” something. Not in the human sense of course. Humans need to study, to read, to hear, to apply, to practice. Not trees. Trees are fully present. It is their physical presence that captures, that sums up, that carries and shares a level, a category of knowledge we humans could only guess at.
In the deep woods, about a two-hour drive from where I live is a tree that is billed as the oldest tree of its species in the world. It is, at minimum, about six hundred years old.
It has a deep cut on one side, where a logging crew, about a hundred years ago, tried to cut it down.
They gave up after cutting through about a hand’s length of bark.
The tree, in its own way, I am sure, remembers that day – and wonders, again in a tree sort of way, if a second attempt is on its way.
The tree’s scale and pace of time is far from ours. A century is a collection of seasons to them. A human life span, even a long one, is a breeze to them.
At the same time, old trees are vitally alive to each passing moment, each bird, each breeze, each threat and each shimmering refraction.
A single tree embodies, expresses and invites Beauty, Wonder, Curiosity, Understanding, Agency, and Service.
Few of us would consider it, but there is much we could learn from trees. Or even a single tree.
The seasons pass, and the trees stand.
Their ancient stillness is an anchor in a world that barely sees them.
I would add one more word to my list; after Beauty, Wonder, Curiosity, Understanding, Agency, and Service, I would add belonging.
As a tree belongs in a forest, we, of all ages and backgrounds, belong and find our fullest selves in our place.