Shedding

"Some things in nature shed. Take trees. The sycamore tree sheds its bark every year, as does the birch. We humans sometimes use the shedding barks of trees to make things. Native Americans used the bark from birch trees to fashion their canoes. Today we still make bottle corks from the bark of the cork oak tree. We weave other bark fibers into cloth such as flax, hemp, and ramie. We also harvest things like gum and latex from the barks of other shedding trees. We even eat the perfumed bark of Sri Lankan saplings — better known as cinnamon.

"Trees are not the only things that shed. Animals do too. In the animal world shedding is called molting. Molting is the routine shedding of feathers in birds, old hairs in mammals, old skin in reptiles, and the entire exoskeleton in arthropods.

"First the birds. The molting in birds is a rather slow process compared to molting in other animals. Birds cannot shed their feathers all at once or they would not be able to fly. Besides, if they were featherless, they would freeze to death in chilly weather. So birds shed old feathers only a couple at a time. When an old feather falls out, a new pin feather grows where the old feather used to be. When the pin feather becomes a full feather, another old feather will fall off. Molting in birds seems quite orderly. But it does take time.

"Many mammals shed their winter coats when spring comes around. Cat and dog owners know what a pain this can be as they run around the house sweeping up hairs from the floor and using a sticky-thingamajig to get the hairs off the couch before the company arrives.

"Some reptiles, like snakes, shed their skin in order to grow. A typical snake sheds its skin by rubbing itself against something like a rock or a tree. Usually the skin comes off in one piece — starting with the head. It is a little like taking off a sock. Arthropods such as beetles, shed their entire exoskeleton, a fancy word for shell. Though beetles never get too big for their britches, they do get too big for their shells. Thus shedding enables them to grow.

"What about us humans? Believe it or not, we too shed. In fact the top layer of our skin sheds about every two weeks. We are constantly getting new hairs too — unless, of course, we are bald.

"Shedding is a good image for spiritual growth. When plants and animals are shedding, they are sloughing off their former selves. As we grow spiritually, we too might have to shed. Shed what? We shed things like ideas, attitudes, unhealthy behaviors, and even parts of our former selves."