faith
complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
If you have ever gardened you must know that it is a true practice in patience. For me it goes beyond patience, and takes a deep dive into faith. I am constantly taught lessons about patience, faith, nurturing and accepting the process of things.
What happens year after year is that I lay my seeds in the soil and I give them everything that they need to be their best. I’m diligent with water and sunshine and loving on them. And week after week I go out to see what’s happening in the garden, and when I don’t see what I expect to be visible progress, my thoughts immediately go to somebody (squirrel) stole my seeds. Or, the thought occurs to me that I am a failure, and that I should never even bother growing a garden because obviously I don’t know what I’m doing.
Something will be taken or I am a failure. Is that faith?
I mean, if you think about it, if we were just to throw the seeds on the ground and walk away and hope they grow, we would not be giving them their best opportunity to grow. With appropriate amounts of sunshine, just amount right amount of water, the seeds have a much greater chance of not just surviving but thriving. As I lay my little seeds carefully in the soil, I also whisper encouragement for them to grow into their best version of their green beans self. But am I infusing confidence and trust the process? Not usually.
Some level of nurturing also has to happen, along with some level of faith. I think the same holds true for our inner work. We can scatter seeds (intentions) all we want but if we don’t truly believe that these changes will occur and we don’t nurture them by giving those intentions some version of sunshine and water, they will never grow into fruition.
This process in my garden occurs year after year, and I usually end up going to the garden store and purchasing plants that have already got a jumpstart on their growth. Basically cheating. And then in a couple weeks, all of those seeds that I didn’t believe in, suddenly burst from the soil with exuberance. Then my garden is overrun with too many plants which ultimately causes the plants to not have room to grow.
I wondered how many time in my life when change doesn’t happen fast enough rather than have faith I overload it with alternatives?
As I was going through the laundry list this week as to why the green beans and the squash haven’t emerged from the soil, I noticed the same old familiar thoughts. Failure. Stealing. Unsuccessful.
How many times in our day-to-day life and in our relationships, or in our work ventures do we have the same thoughts? How many times do we set aside faith? How many times do we question the complete trust or confidence in someone (including ourselves), or some thing greater than ourselves? How many times do we have no faith in the process? How many times do we set out for change only to not nurture the ideas with the proper ingredients to help growth happen?
So as I look at my garden, and wonder when the magic will happen, I’m reminded to look within and ask myself if I really do have faith in myself? Do I really have faith in the process? It’s not just about the green bean here, it’s about the thoughts that I have when things don’t go as fast as I think they should.
Such a profound reminder that nature truly is our greatest teacher. She teaches us that everything happens according to Divine time. And given the proper environment, all things can grow.
As I took a walk this morning in the early hours, I was astounded to feel the presence of Life. The mist was rising from the wet plants from a beautiful rain overnight just as the sun was warming the earth. The millions of shades of green that were enveloping me as I stood with the sun peeking over the horizon. I stopped for a moment, and I could actually feel the presence of Life. I think it’s remarkable that this great Creator of ours chose the color green for all things nature. Green you see is the color of love and the color of the heart center.
So as all my little sprouts are taking shape underneath the soil I am working on trusting and I being confident in not just myself, but in the process because I am reminded that all around me is Love.
And that is the faith that I was looking for.
