July 4

PATIENCE MONTH: DAY 4:

“Flower doesn’t bloom overnight. Trust your path and enjoy the process.” ― Rupal Asodaria

We are always right where we are supposed to be. The highs and lows, the emotional roller coaster is all about us believing there should be something different happening.

Learning to sit still with where we are at any time is the challenge. We all believe there is “another” way it should go. Like we know what the hell life is all about anyway.

We can ONLY create that which we already have lived. That is all we know. Life is always, always, always being born from the unknown. SO, we are destined to be at war with life until we learn to let go and allow it to unfold as it will…moment by moment.

When we work to impose our will on life, we get unhappy and angry. I spent so much of my time like this. Once in a while, there would be a good moment, where it felt like life was doing my will. Then, BAM! Here comes the sledge hammer.

How much easier life feels when I let go and let it unfold as it is supposed to. I love gardening analogies, because they work for me. Early in this thing, I remember someone talking about how we pull the weeds and prepare the soil BEFORE we plant the seeds.

Wow! What a concept. That means I do these steps to get rid of the toxic thinking and old ideas (weeds) that were clogging up my life and my energy and my heart. THEN, I prepare the soil of my soul by finding that relationship with the Power. Okay.

NOW, I am ready to plant seeds and young plants into this. It will be quite a while before anything grows in this new environment, so I must learn to sit still with my new soil and keep the weeds at bay. More practice of these beautiful steps. Okay.

NOW, as the seedlings and young plants begin to sprout and throw up runners, I water and wait for them to create the plant I intended them to create. If they are fed and tended well, they will thrive. These are the relationships I get to create in recovery. I feed and water and tend them.

These are the seeds of the new life I am walking into, slowly and tentatively keeping the young sprouts safe and keeping the weeds away.

There is a balance in all of this. Weeds will crop up as I feed and water my plants. I gently extract them by working more of the steps and doing the footwork of long-term recovery. Some of my plants have lived only one season, others have become giant trees that will be around for a long time. I don’t get to say in this all the time. But, I do get to tend and water and occasionally take a plant out because it is not what I thought I was planting. I love gardening analogies.