Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson
This is the gardener’s weekend, whether we are planting seven tomato plants or a garden patch to meet all of our family’s needs this is the weekend. I was feeling quite smug, I wintered my three Dahlias from last year. I planted them in too deep of shade so they never bloomed but this year was going to be my year with Dahlias. I carefully dug them up and put them in a box in the cold cellar and sometime during the winter I looked at them, and they looked great.
Yesterday, I pulled out my little box of Dahlia tubers, and to my horror, they shriveled up to almost nothing. What if this was a collection of rare Dahlias, what if they were something I needed to be a good steward of? What if this is a metaphor for my life, and I think I’m tending to things better than I am? What if a little more tender loving care needs to go into other areas of my life so they bloom and blossom like I am still hoping dahlias will?
Fortunately, I can buy more Dahlia tubers, and I can learn how to store them so they will overwinter, or I can purchase more every spring. This is a choice we have when we live with an abundance of stores wanting to sell us our heart’s desire. If nobody overwintered plants we would not do well as a society.
Mom stored her Dahlias, which grew every year, and she bought new varieties and expanded her Dahlia border. Being a good steward of what we have helps us to get more. If we squander what we have through neglect, ignorance, laziness, or fear we will not see an increase. The law of sowing and reaping plays out in our lives in small and big ways. When we look after the little things the big things look after themselves. Haven’t we all heard that our whole lives? How is it working for us?
It might be the wrong thing to do, but I’ve soaked my shriveled Dahlia tubers and I’m planting them today. If they grow they grow, this is my little experiment giving them a chance in case there is some life left in them. I could just throw them out, but maybe not giving things a chance is also one of the problems we have in life. We are quick to throw away things that could be fixed, recovered, and repaired. We do it with things and we do it with people.
Life is an echo. What you send out. Comes back. What you sow you reap. What you give you get. What you see in others exists in you. Zig Ziglar
I’ve read articles about people getting rid of negative people in their lives. I’ve read books where people found a way to deal with difficult people and found they became allies and friends. Finding a way to deal with difficult people is the better way because there will always be difficult people, and some may think we are the difficult ones.
Yesterday, I pulled out armfuls of stinkweed, definitely, something I was not happy to see in my garden and yet when I Google stinkweed it provides many benefits. It stops bleeding, disinfects wounds, and alleviates skin rashes and arthritis, fevers and gum disease, muscle and headaches, bruises, and sprains. Wow, I pulled up a whole pharmacy from my backyard because of prejudice against certain plants that grow more easily than the plants I want to grow.
Cicero said, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” What if we can learn as much from our garden as we can from our library? I loved being out in the dirt with the sun and the trees, earthworms wriggling, and the promise of the bounty of my garden. I love planting, but tending is also essential as is harvest and storage so it will grow again next year.
This year I intend to spend more time in my garden and learn the lessons the garden has to teach me. Are you enjoying a garden, on a window sill, balcony, patch of earth, park, or public garden?
Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7
Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny. Charles Reade
If you don’t like what you are reaping, you had better change what you have been sowing. Jim Rohn
Thank you for reading. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
