The Process of Life is Enough: A Collection by Madison McKenna

In June, I encountered a book titled “On Caring” by Milton Mayeroff. It’s one of those self-help books that I buy and never read. I came to understand my compulsions to collect and save through examining these little pieces of a greater autobiography. Mayeroff is right when he explains, “When there is no possibility for new growth, there is despair.”

In September, I cut off the hair that I had been growing since ninth grade. I was at a standstill and on impulse it felt right. I’ve been thinking about change and growth through the notion of time passing. It used to take me five minutes to brush my hair but now I don’t even have to.

For the sake of new growth, we must recognize when it’s time to trim back the dead branches. A tropism is a living organism’s tendency to grow towards a stimulus, similar to the way Mayeroff describes caring as, “helping the other grow.” Like a plant growing towards the sun, we are influenced and nurtured by constructive relationships. He tells me I’ve been too hard on myself – I suppose it may be true that the process of life is enough.