Add to Your Growth...
This Spring my tulips didn’t do well. Failure to thrive is what I called it. After three years of stunning, strong tulip beds, this year they just didn’t have the right conditions to reach their potential. They were only half the height, some never bloomed at all. And I can’t blame them. Some say we’ve just had too much rain, even by Pacific Northwest standards. But my research also told me that tulip bulbs actually have a fairly short life expectancy. Most regrow only two or three years and then need to be replaced.
However, I haven’t tended to the flower beds like I should. Grass from the nearby lawn overran the tulips and I just haven’t had time to deal with it. The soil hasn’t been fertilized, or new soil added for years. And my friendly squirrels love to dig up the dirt and occasionally a bulb from this flower patch. All of these plant-life realities also tell the story of the soul. Unless we tend to the health and growth of our own souls, listen to the inner voice asking for nurturing, care for the new seeds that have been planted, and show up to the work that needs to be done, we simply won’t grow.
It’s a great metaphor, but to make it a meaningful image it needs to translate into actionable commitment to make it a reality in life. That’s what spiritual disciplines do. In and of themselves, they don’t make us grow, just as a gardener cannot make a bulb grow. But as we tend to the conditions of body, mind, and spirit we steward this God-given life. At times the body may call for more rest or more exercise. The mind may call for releasing old habits or expanding thought patterns. The spirit may require time for stillness, meditation, or creative expression through music, art, or literature.
Soul-tending begins with awareness, noticing where we feel something lacking, noticing where we are thriving. Recently I noticed a spirit of complaining had crept into my life. It’s such a subtle intruder. It seemed wherever I was, I was mentally (if not verbally), assessing how a place or a business or an entire city could be better in appearance, operation, or outcomes. I was always on the hunt for better furniture for my own home, better dishware for the kitchen, all of which are subtle ways of complaining that what I had was not good enough. It grew out of that spirit of complaining and discontentment.
My morning journal pages are focusing on this way of gratitude, allowing the Divine to redefine my thoughts and attitudes. I’m replanting an old prayer into my soul, one I prayed years ago, asking God each day to “tender my heart,” to find the way back to relearning contentment in all things, and welcoming it all as the tool of transformation and growth. Just as the tulip bulbs need to be replanted, and the flower bed needs weeding, and soil needs feeding, so the soul needs tending, over and over again, for always we are beginning.
For Spiritual Direction Conversation: Where do you feel your life is longing for nurturing? What are the areas where you feel stuck, or withered, in need of nurturing? Are there spiritual habits that need to be replaced or renewed? What would feel life-giving to your soul today? How might that translate into a regular practice or discipline to keep your body, mind, and spirit, healthy?
