It is the time of year when everyone is planting flowers. We all enjoy looking at flowers, and if we have a choice, most will prefer looking at beautifully landscaped flowers than weeds any day!
But I got to thinking...about the seeds that get planted. The starter plants simply get transplanted. But the seeds, they are a different story. Sometimes, I feel like the seed. I have a concept of what I am supposed to be, there is a plan and guideline that my genetics and DNA work towards. I feel it deep down within me. Like the seed, everything I do will ultimately end in what I am supposed to be. Me? I'm a natural born optimist.
Springtime is a season for new hope and growth. The seeds get planted in the soil, packed down, fertilized with smelly fertilizer, covered and soaked in water. The weeds get removed, so they won't threaten the wonderful new flowers. The seedlings are nurtured so they can grow strong. Even I feel the new, fresh hope of a new beginning.
Instead of feeling the warm, exciting energy of a new beginning and new growth, there are times I feel more like the seed than the flower. It feels like life has buried me. I feel the weight and pressure of everything. I feel the crap being piled all around me, and it seems when I grasp for breath…I’m being drowned out. I can feel the foundation of everything around me shaken up and around, moved and turned upside down. And I fall a little deeper the abyss. Ultimately, I feel the shell of my core cracking. I can feel the pain and struggle of everything in my crying to get out. When this happens, my goal is to just keep moving. Sometimes I have no idea where, or how it’s happening…but my instincts keep me moving in a direction,
When I finally get to the top, I can breathe, feel the sun, and wiggle in the breeze. As good as that feels, sometimes it feels like the world isn’t that wonderful Rose Garden I imagined it was a a young girl. When I finally remove those Rose Colored Glasses, it seems it is a world of weeds.
No one plants a weed, or nurtures and fertilizes a weed. Yet they are there with deep roots…chocking everything around them out around them in their ultimate act of selfishness. You almost have to search in the news, social media, and newspapers for that positive and beautiful story. Instead seeds of discontent and hatred have somehow sprouted into what seems like awful weeds sometimes.
Here in Maine, we have a late Spring. But with all the recent Quarantine lockdowns, it seems everyone else is enjoying a late Spring season, too. Everyone is planting and expecting new things to emerge. And here we go, what will this Spring Season bring? Will it be “Flower” seeds of hope? “Vegetable” seeds of sustenance, longevity, and stability? Or will it be “weeds” of distention?
Luckily, I know of a Gardener, who tends to His Garden. The Gardner planted me, and I have a direction to grow in, and just like a flower seed, my instincts and spirit know naturally which way to go. I am drawn in that direction. My instruction manual on the back of the seed packet says, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8, ESV). And as hard as a daisy tries, it will never become a rose – it just can’t change its DNA. Neither can I. I was planted to become what I am, and I allow the Gardner to prune as He sees fit. I'm a natural born optimist, living in, what lately seems to be, a negative world. Like a radar, I continually seek for what is good in the world. It's just the way I am.
Life is hard, no matter what your direction is. If you feel under pressure and drowned out, find the Sun. Put all you energy towards facing the Sun. – and don’t feel bad if you think you are too tough for all this. Even a rose is covered with a few thorns. A seed can’t grow unless it planted in the dark…under tons of pressure. The tears that you cried become the water that is needed for your growth. And all that crap piled on it? Well, that is naturally the fertilizer. All of it is necessary for you to bloom where you are planted.
As a flower, you can’t do anything about the weeds. All you can do is focus on finding the Sun, and growing towards it. A weed can be a weed, it is what it is. - and some are rightfully beautiful But when a flower can plant another seed of hope somewhere…it’s a step in the right direction.
It’s Spring, especially here in Maine. It’s planning season. Enjoy the season, and good luck with your gardens and your flowers this year!
Photo and writing by Karen Brilliant Andrews