There are many things in this life we have no control over. There are many things that we do and those things we can active steps to change, but if you spend your time stressing over things that you cannot directly affect you often wear yourself out emotionally and physically and lose site of the truly important things in your life.
Into every life a rain must fall was a favorite expression of my grandmother. She used to say you cannot enjoy the sunny days without a few rainy ones sprinkled in to remind you of how wonderful your life is. She was always comparing life to nature and how everything begins with a small seed, or how the warmth of the sun can bring a plant to life but to much sun can kill a plant with to little rain. I think she was a gardener through and through and I often think of her while I am tolling away in my garden during the summer months.
I find solace in my garden. It helps me stay focused and realize that although right this second it appears there is nothing happening that beneath the soil that tiny seed is doing amazing things. It is breaking free of that hard protective shell and spreading it roots down deep into the soil to give it the foundation it needs to grow into a tall productive plant. That even when a plant can look its worst it will often come back with some TLC and a little water. To much water can kill a plant much like life it a balancing act of finding that happy medium.
Last summer I spent many hours working with my garden. It is something that brings me great joy. Feeling that rich dirt between my fingers as I plant my seeds in the late winter with hopes and dreams of having a garden that will not only feed my bliss but also feed my family. Watching as those tender sprouts push their way through that soil in a matter of days or weeks and becomes the plant that will grow big and strong and produce the fruits and veggies that is so incredibly delicious on my table. I also have to sit by and watch as the weakest of my plants don't survive and wither and die. Simply because although they may be of the same plant as another seed they may lack the ability to thrive once they have begun their growth.
I know that not all my seeds will make it and even those that do I must weed out and pull the poorest in order for the strongest to survive for my garden. I plant 3 seeds per pot to ensure that I get at least one healthy plant. Now you may be asking yourself what does all this gardening information have to do with following my bliss. Simple, life is a lot like gardening. You go into it with hopes and dreams of finding what makes you happy. You pursue avenues that may or may not come to fruition and that only time and patience can tell exactly what the end result will be. We all try things that don't work out. But do not be discouraged by your failures, learn from them.
If you were gardening and half your plants didn't survive you wouldn't blame yourself because you knew you had tried and at least some of those ideas and dreams became what you wanted. If you have provided your dreams and goals with the time and energy and they don't survive to produce the fruit of happiness perhaps it wasn't the path you were meant to be on. Perhaps in the process of replacing those seedlings you met that person who will help you find that path, or better yet perhaps you still had a few life lessons to learn in order to better focus your energy on the right end goal for you.
Before I began gardening I often didn't understand some of the things my grandmother said. I just figured she was getting older and perhaps a wee bit senile. But now that I find myself wrist deep in dirt during the coldest months of the year her advise often floods back to me. I remember spending time on my knees in her garden pulling weeds that would choke out the plants and the smell of that sweet corn straight off the stalk. I remember sitting around our dinner table enjoying the fruits and veggies she grew and even into the colder months enjoying the harvest from canning she did every year at harvest time.
I have many happy memories of my Mema's garden. I also remember scratching at bug bites and sweating like a work horse out in that garden every summer. It may not have felt so great when I was working my butt off but the end result was always worth the effort. I understand now why she so often spoke in gardening terms because getting back in touch with nature has given me a lot of insight into my own human frailties and my own body.
You can work with nature or you can work against it. Often times if you work against it your endeavors fail and you end up miserable and confused. However if you work with it, another favorite of hers was to everything there is a season, you will often find your bounties piling up around you like a great gardener during the harvesting time. With so much you need to can or dehydrate or share your bountiful blessings.
My Mema taught me to watch nature and take my lead from her. The apple trees blossom in the spring and put on quiet the show. Covered in beautiful blossoms that float through the air and drape the air with their sweet scent but their apples are not ready for harvesting until the fall and a lot can happen between those cool spring days and those cooling fall nights. The weather can turn nasty, the bugs may discover your treasure and a wary gardener always knows to be on guard and protect those treasured apples from pest and disease. Your dreams are a lot like those apples. If you don't learn to do what is important in following your dreams and protect them from those who would eat away at your dreams and goals you may end up with nothing but a pest infested fruit that is not edible or beautiful.
I remember her teaching me about which crops did best with the cold, and like dreams some are best left to only do a bit at during each week, while other crops require more of the suns warmth and are much higher maintenance. Tomatoes are like that, they require constant attention. To little nutrients and your plants won't produce fruit, to much water and they drowned. It is a balancing act as is many dreams and goals. To little attention and they will never produce the desired end result and to much and you may become frustrated waiting for the sun to shine on them and produce fruit. I remember sitting and watching the tomatoes growing marveling at the tiny buds that attracted every bee in a 5 mile radius to pollinate them and yet even then not all buds became those juicy ripe tomatoes that I loved so much on my salads and sandwiches.
If you want the life you deserve you must cultivate it. You must find that happy medium between over-watering and under-watering. You must explore and talk to those already on the path and learn from their mistakes and hopefully share some of your own along the way. Nothing in life worth having comes easy. It is always going to be a struggle but if you are a dedicated gardener you learn from your mistakes, you move forward with your knowledge and in the harvest time you reap the benefits of all your hard work.
I hope my blog today has given you some food for thought, I hope it has if in a round about way helped you to understand a little better about working with your personal nature and allowing your dreams and goals to unfold at their own rate. There may be days when it feels as though nothing is happening and that time is standing still, but then you will turn around realize that a beautiful fruit has been hiding under a large leaf and is almost ready to harvest and enjoy.
Until Tomorrow blog buddies, stay safe, stay sane, and stay happy.
Like the seeds in this growing tray, turn your head to the light. Allow the sun to feed and fuel your dreams. Bask in the warmth of those who support you and learn to bend in the showers of those who don't. Take a lesson from nature and weed out those ideas and dreams that aren't strong enough to stand the harsh weather and protect your bliss from the freezing winds of cruel words and people.
Be good to yourself and demand respect from others, because if they are not capable of respecting your dreams and goals they are not worthy of the attention and energy they drain from your life. Be in harmony with the things around you and let everything happen at its own pace.
You can learn a lot from nature if you will only give her the chance to teach you. Many blessings and it is never to early to sow the seeds of your future life, even if it is simply putting a small seed in moist Earth and letting it become the plant is is destined to be.
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