Gardening

We’re all gardeners. Personally, I despise the traditional sense of gardening. I’ve planted plenty of veggies and such in days gone by and am left with unpleasant memories of the whole process. (I just heard a gasp from one of the readers that loves to toil in their garden as they connect to the Earth and the plants with their dirt encrusted fingers. Okay, well, that’s not my thing. Can we move on?) Today, I simply love to eat the fruits of another’s labors. Enough said.

So, exactly what type of gardening am I talking about?

I’m referring to the seeds we plant each and every day into one another’s minds and lives. Sometimes we do it with intention because it’s part of our vocation or because our input has been sought, and in other instances it occurs quite inconspicuously as we engage in conversation with each other.

The seeds are as varied as the plant life we encounter on our planet, taking the form of words, ideas and actions both small and large. They are a hybrid of our own life lived. In planting these seeds we have offered someone potential- for growth, change and possibilities. A new way of thinking, feeling, living and experiencing their life.

So now you see these seeds are indeed quite powerful and meaningful to our existence together.

Some may blossom right before our eyes as a new understanding comes to life for the person sitting across from us. Most, however, appear to lie dormant and soon enough we become distracted and move on to the next plot, known as a person, in hopes of seeing yet another kernel that we’ve planted bud. Unfortunately, we are not often rewarded with witnessing the manifestations of most seeds we’ve sown. And that, I have learned, is as it should be.

Unlike the farmer that gathers his crops, we are not meant to harvest all that we’ve planted. It is not about us and what we have done, dear ego, but is simply an offering to another to do with as they deem fitting. Our ego wants to see and know that we’ve made a difference or had an impact. But the soul is not attached to the outcome whatsoever because it knows that the very act of planting a seed has changed that individual forever, no matter if we observe its fruition.

Don’t believe me? Call to mind the traditional sense of gardening I’ve mentioned above. When we put that physical seed in the ground, even the tiniest of seeds has shifted the earth around it. Nothing will ever be the same once its presence has been known. So too it is with that which we sow in the lives of our fellow human beings, and that’s enough. And that’s beautiful. Be like the wind, content to plant a seed and knowing that when the time is right it shall bloom forth in all its glory.

Be well and happy.