Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. Socrates
This weekend I harvested my potatoes, picked the last tomatoes, and lifted my Dahlia tubers. Last year the Dahlia tubers looked great and the next time I looked at them they were withered, I planted them without much hope they’d grow, and they didn’t. I purchased new tubers and the blooms were lovely, still not planted in the best spot but next year I’ll find a better spot for them and pick up a couple more varieties.
Creating a beautiful garden is still one of my dreams. The garden has moments but needs much more tender loving care than it gets. This was a bare lot but now the trees have gotten big, and there is a lot more shade than there used to be. We love sitting out in the backyard enveloped by the trees we planted years ago.
Gardens don’t stay the same and our lives don’t stay the same either. We need to edit our lives and edit our gardens as time goes by. We think we’ve planted the perfect tree in the perfect spot, and we love the beautiful blooms but perhaps not the mess from falling leaves and crabapples the rest of the year. What was once a blooming garden below is now in too much shade, and plants that used to come up every year no longer do, it’s time to redesign and replant.
Next year will be better we tell ourselves but of course only if we do the work to make it better. No one is going to force me to do the work to have a beautiful garden, it is up to me.
There are three constants in life… change, choice, and principles. Stephen Covey
No one will force us to read the books, plan the trips, or go to the gym. When we are in the grocery store no one tells us that’s too much ice cream, or are you sure you need those cookies? In the grocery cart yesterday I put in pumpkin spice pecan butter tarts and then took them out, no one else would eat them and do I need eight butter tarts? Here I am the next morning still thinking about them. They might make their way into my cart yet. Baked from scratch the package says, will they taste better in my mind than if I try them?
How much of what we think about is better in our mind than the reality? Is that just an excuse not to do things, to take the chance, to have an experience? They say we regret what we don’t do more than what we do. I’m getting ready to visit Mom before her ninety-ninth birthday. I am fortunate to have the time and opportunity to spend this time with her.
The time we spend with people we love is special. The ordinary moments of our lives we often don’t appreciate until they are gone. Our lives continue on their ordinary path until they don’t, something changes and we long for the ordinariness we had. We will never be ready for some of the changes coming into our lives, even when they are welcome like a new baby, our life changes in ways we didn’t see coming.
Our job is to adapt to the changes and make the best of what comes. Our lives change, the seasons change, and there is beauty in every season if we look for it. Are we looking forward to what is possible in our lives, how we can make our here and now as good as it can be, and planning for the future? We are here, we might have a lot of choices or few, but if we make the best of the choices we have, can we make the best of what is?
We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance. Harrison Ford
Making a big life change is pretty scary. But know what’s even scarier? Regret. Zig Ziglar
Life is about trusting your feelings, taking chances, finding happiness, learning from the past, and realizing everything changes. Unknown
Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
