One of my favorite things about summer is getting my hands in the dirt, and watching my flowers bloom and vegetables grow. I tend to them with basic care and they show their thanks with beauty and abundance.
This summer, as I worked an area of my garden, my tools and potting soil blocked one of my potted flowers. The plant got plenty of sunshine and water but because it was just out of reach, I didn’t remove its fading flowers.
Here’s a photo of that plant today (grown from two-inch cell-pak):
Being accustomed to my flowers thriving more brilliantly, this little one captured my focus. The plant expended so much energy on the fading blooms that it had little left for new growth. I realized that the result is metaphoric for life. We can keep the body going with the basics, water, sleep, and food, but if we don’t give our lives that extra care, we will not thrive. And part of that extra care is “removing the faded flowers,” getting rid of that which is no longer supporting us in the present. When we expend energy to maintain that which is preventing our happiness and harmony, we clearly have less energy to create our best moments right now and our best moments in the future.
So, take inventory. What habits or focuses are making you whither? What areas, activities, and people are consuming more energy than the goodness of what they add? What depletes you? Think in terms of diet, addictions, habits, relationships, job, clutter, and busyness. If you let go of these fading blooms, you will restore your energy for creating far more of what you want.
Sometimes, philosophical wisdom stays in the head and doesn’t integrate into our being until something evokes its synthesis. To prod that happening, look at a photo of a plant (from the same two-inch cell-pak) which I deadheaded regularly:
What do you want your life to look like and feel like? The first plant or the second.? Kind of hits home, doesn’t it?
Deadhead your life on a regular and let the beauty and vibrancy bloom!