Natural Science as Metaphor

The more I learn about the world around me, the more I learn about myself.
It is empowering to have and share knowledge about our surroundings and really, an understanding of earth science can help us survive, live more comfortably and find creative solutions to any of the problems we are faced with on a physical level.
But what can deepening our understanding of the natural sciences do for us spiritually or emotionally?
Transferring our knowledge of earth science into metaphor can help us understand ourselves better. For instance, when I first learned about the Walking Palm tree (Socratea exorrhiza) its story immediately resonated with me. The Walking Palm is able to send out new roots and let older ones die off, allowing the tree to move across the forest floor- A Rooted Nomad!
Learning about this adaptation of the Walking Palm immediately put me at ease. I had always felt that I had to choose between sinking down roots and wandering nomadic, but now understood what perhaps I had always suspected, I was in fact a rooted nomad and I was not alone!
My friend tells me that learning about the mineral Azurite's sensitivity to sunlight helped him understand his own delicate balance. Azurite is a beautiful blue stone with many healing properties. However, if it is left in the sun too long it's color will fade and it will no longer have a deep rich cerulean hue to share with us. Removing the stone from the ground where it was created does have benefit to us but if we overexpose the fragile stone, it can lose this beauty. My friend shared with me this metaphor of being gentle with himself, sharing his gifts at the right moments and not overexposing himself to the very elements that make him shine.
These are just two examples, neither necessarily sought out as knowledge to help us understand ourselves, but simple curiosity about the world around us that led to deeper, metaphoric, personal meaning. For this reason I really advocate teaching our knowledge of the natural sciences, at any age. You never know what seeds will be planted by sharing what we know!