Life gives us many opportunities to learn valuable lessons,
and to practice those we think we’ve already learned. I’m grateful for that because it keeps me
looking out for new insights, and new ways of approaching attributes that are
difficult for me to master.
As a family, we have been facing some particularly difficult
bumps in the road. One is a huge “hill”
for me, so I’ve appreciated being able to get outside this past week to do some
physical labor. In fact, as I was
removing weeds from a section of garden this morning, I thought I would come in
and write a post about the blessings of physical exertion, and its ability to relieve
stress, give us time to think, and help us sort through problems, seeing
them with a new and more healthy perspective.
However, as I dug and pulled weeds, I began to notice some healthy looking plants,--“volunteers”
from last year’s potato crop. Removing the weeds revealed one, then two,
then several more at intervals in the plot I was clearing. I wondered if they might amount to anything,
so I came in to the computer and did a little research. The opinions were varied, but several people
wrote that their experience had been favorable, and they enjoyed watching the
miracle of new growth from a crop they thought had been exhausted the past
fall. One person wrote: “If I can get
volunteers to grow and produce fruit, I don't care what they are. I will
consider each and every one a gift.”
I’m leaving my little volunteers in the patch. As I continue to clear the area, I will keep
a sharp eye for others that might be poking up through the soil, each with the promise
of producing a few fruits to compliment the dinner table and give nourishment
at summer’s end.
As I’ve taken time to appreciate my volunteer potatoes, I
can’t help but think how analogous they are to life (as so many lessons from
nature are). A year ago I planted, tended,
and nurtured my potato seed, and enjoyed watching my plants grow. My harvest wasn’t as bountiful as I hoped it
would be, but it did yield enough to warrant the time expended, and it was a
joy to see the verdant green garden area—especially pleasing in a desert
climate.
How like growing a garden is the experience of “growing” children! As parents,
we did our sowing, nourishing and tending many years ago. We put in countless hours encouraging healthy
growth and development, always hoping those lessons would bear fruit and bring
an abundant harvest. As the years have
passed we have often experienced great delight at the results. However, like all parents, we have experienced
times when the harvest has not produced the yield we would have wanted. We find ourselves, even with grown children,
sometimes laboring to pull weeds that were never successfully eradicated. It can be discouraging, and can make us think
that our harvest, no matter how successful in some respects was altogether
lacking in others.
I’ve always tried to be mindful of my efforts as a parent,
but about the time I turned 50 that process of evaluation took on a whole new
aspect. After all, my children were now
grown and my influence—for good or bad—had reached its terminus. The time for parenting was over—Right? NOT!! In the ensuing years, I’ve often found myself
mentally “walking through our family garden and pulling up "weeds," apologizing
for an error here, a misstep there. The
follies of my youthful parenting have often come back to haunt me, but my
children are amazingly forgiving and, I’m happy to say, I’m far more likely to
be hugged than censored. As I have pulled the weeds in our “family patch”,
it has sometimes been tempting to forget my successes, and to believe my husband
and I have experienced all the harvest we will ever realize from our efforts. However, I strive for objectivity, and today’s
experience in the back yard helped me to find some. Here it is:
If we are careful in our weeding, clearing and examining, we may find
that our labors from the past have not fully exhausted their potential to yield
fruit. There may yet be “volunteer” attributes of good popping up in our family
patch, just awaiting the opportunity to bring forth their fruits and give us a
new measure of joy.
As we examine the work we’ve done, we may feel discouraged
and think our opportunities to influence and nurture are over, and it is merely
time to clear the patch, till it under, and call it a day. If we do, however, we might step on and
annihilate potential good that is trying to come forth. And it probably will come forth with our
continued encouragement and love. Even
grown children who may not be manifesting the fruits they are capable of can
still flourish under the influence of sincere concern and genuine affection.
As parents of grown children, sometimes love and prayers are
all we have to offer, but aren’t they better than the heavy treading of
criticism and judgment that will, for sure, annihilate the potential that still
exists? Surely, with faith and thought, our
continued and care-filled efforts can still bring forth results. Our original labors of planting, nurturing
and growing our family are not always fully realized in the initial season of
harvest. Sometimes we must watch for “volunteers”
and be willing to put our faith in their ability to produce additional fruit—perhaps
later than expected, but just as appreciated-- for that fruit is a gift, and can
be just as prized as the fruits from the first harvest. Maybe, in some ways, even more!
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