How Does Your Garden Grow?

I love the comparison of a garden and life. Each has seasons and granted the four seasons of the year are predictable and life's are not, all the same each experiences planting, nurturing, harvest and rest. In other words, Spring, Summer, Fall or Autumn and Winter.

For this life metaphor, I think we all easily understand planting and nurturing; you plant  your seed and you don’t just wait for the harvest, you water and weed- that is-you nurture then you reap what you have sown. What many have a challenge with is the Winters of life.

When you are experiencing Winter; maybe you lost your job or your business, maybe your health or your relationships are ailing, maybe everything went wrong-you often have difficulty remembering that it is just Winter and Spring is sure to follow.

But remembering is exactly what you must do if you want an early Spring. There is not one person on the planet that has not experienced a winter or two or maybe many more than that. The reason some people have a harder, longer Winter is because they live into it instead of seeing that every day is one day closer to Spring and living into that. You need an example?

Two people lose their jobs at the same company. They talk on the phone at least once a week. Each has put out hundreds of resumes with no luck so far. One is happy to print out more copies to get out into the marketplace because she knows that each new resume means she is one step closer to that new job while the other dreads printing out more copies, sure she is wasting her time, effort and money. Which do you think will see Spring first? One of these ladies is planning what she will wear on her first day at that new job, the other wonders what she will wear to the food pantry. One is planning for Spring the other sees only Winter. What you dwell on is totally your choice; you can think about where you are now or you can think about where you are going. Only one of those behaviors will move you forward while the other keeps you stuck in place.