How my flower garden seasons and Life Intersect

I want to talk about life and it’s commonalities with my flower garden. Because I planted one this year. And just a warning, I’m a little proud of it:)

Yep, clear back in October I planted a garden.

My friend (who is a gardener extraordinaire Jamie Bigelow) gifted me some seeds for the gorgeous ranunculus she grows each spring.

I worked my tail off planting those suckers. Our dirt turns to clay here in the hot months of the desert.

I worked late into the night planting those things. And actually fell back off the ledge onto my back at one point trying to jump on my shovel to loosen that dirt. Yow!

This is what the seeds look like, just in case you want to know:

Got them planted right before we left out of town for Fall break and had all kinds of watering problems.

BUT, despite my mistakes, those little seeds started to sprout.

And grow.

All that care started to take root and turn green.

And now they are blooming like nobody’s business.

They make me so happy!

Ok, I know this is a little bit of oversharing on the flower dealio, but you guys, I GREW THESE!!!

I’m pretty proud.

Thoughts about my flower garden seasons and life

Anyway, this process of planting and watering and fertilizing has made me think a little bit about life.

I love this quote I came across the other day:

Every season is not a growing season. Every season is not harvest. There are seasons of watering, seasons of planting, seasons of pulling up the weeds and fertilizing the ground. These are important seasons. They are times of testing where God is seeing what we’re made of. Are we going to keep a good attitude when we’re not making progress? Are we going to do the right thing when we’re not seeing growth. Are we going to have faith and patience?

Joel Osteen

Kind of reminds me of my “renewal” post last week.

So many different seasons of life to be lived.

For some we are hanging on by our fingernails. There are others that are just not very exciting. Some are full of woe and others are full of glory.

Our kids are doing the same. Man alive, my kids are going through so many “seasons” right now! Next week hopefully I’ll have a little update on them.

But I love to think about the fact that sometimes it’s not about the “season,” it’s what we’re choosing to do with the season that matters.

And also sometimes our “seasons” and the things we can do with them are tucked close-by and others are wide-spread.

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

(I want to read a book Dr. Estes wrote called Women Who Run with the Wolves, BTW. Sounds so good! It was on the New York Times bestseller list for 145 weeks and sold over two million copies, yow!)

What matters is that we are working and learning and growing through it all.

Sending out so much love to everyone out there in the midst of whatever season you find yourself in. May you be blessed with love and encouragement where you need it to grow.

Also, thank you Jamie for the flower seeds!

XOXO