This weekend I had the chance to go to Longwood Gardens with a friend. It was still a fairly cold day outside, just above freezing, but with plenty of sunshine. After a very long frigid winter, this day felt like Spring is more than possible… it would be coming soon.
Being at Longwood with the sun shining and flowers all around was so heartwarming. Flower Therapy. It was all I could do to keep off the grass they had growing in the middle. Seeing grass for the first time in months I just wanted to lay down and relax on he lush green!
All of this had me dreaming about the warm days to come and my getting to be outside in my own garden again. I love gardening. Truthfully, I have little to no idea what I’m doing out there. But I love the joy in getting my hands dirty, pulling out weeds and debris and planting seeds – seeds that will in time produce color for months or fresh food right from my back yard. It’s amazing to me. I plant a little seed or seedling and it grows up into beautiful flowers and delicious food without anyone telling it how! Little miracles all throughout my garden.
Right now, you can feel Spring creeping its way into our lives through warmer days, sunny afternoons, and rain making the earth soggy and ready. This thawing makes me wonder; is my garden ready for Spring?
Once the snow melts, the ground will have to be prepared – weeds pulled, rocks moved, some plants cut back after the harsh Winter’s hand touched them. All done to create the spacious nourishing soil each plant will need to thrive.
That’s the way it is with our lives too, isn’t it? There are only so many minutes in a day. Things that don’t nourish us, bring us closer to God, or who we want to be can easily compete and win our moments. Thoughts we’ve repeated for years which aren’t helping us grow up into all that we could be or cultivate the Faith we long for, consume our mind space.
So I’ve been asking myself – what weeds, rocks, and debris are present? What isn’t serving the soil of our hearts?
We are all on our own unique journey, and the answers to those questions are different for us all. But we all have something that we could let go of in order to make life-giving space for God to fill.
Join me. Create some sacred emptiness for God. Spring is coming. Are we ready?
