A  gift for a lifettime

A long long time ago in a far off place where I used to live, a man I was dating gave me a card that said “Grow Where You Are Planted”.   In addition to being somewhat insulted by the implication  that I was somehow proceeding wrongly in life , the words formed a solid iron chamber around me…I could not breathe or see…no door, no light, no oxygen, no way out…death.

At the time I was in my restless twenties and the prospect of being planted and stagnant suffocated the vitality right out of me.  That I should stop and grow in one place or that my destiny included such limitation was inconceivable.  “Never!!”

That relationship soon dissolved but today, some 40 years later, the message has stayed with me. When it wafts into consciousness, it causes both curiosity and that original rebellious and dismissive reaction of years ago.  This  morning, it drifted into view like an annoying floater as I made coffee and prepared to sit my butt down to focus on my neglected writing for a few hours.

... Grow Where-ever you are planted

What was different about its appearance this time? As I stirred my coffee, I was aware of a spacious thoughtlessness about its presence followed by a sort of mini-life review.  I acknowledged there had been plenty of ‘water under the bridge’ ( a by-product of 60 years of living)  …a long-term relationship that ended…

  …travel & many flying adventures including numerous cross-country trips that delivered a unique perspective of the   stunning character of America

…a spectacular stint as a formation pilot in a vintage warbird aircraft, an unforgettable career in aviation

…an undeniably spiritually expansive journey in psychotherapy (my own and then helping others)

… relocation more times than I care to remember

…and – marriage to my beloved that is rich, abundant and the exact place that I have chosen to lovingly become planted!

Every adventure brought learning, awareness, expanded experience and an opportunity to stretch my personal envelope of restricted beliefs and capability… I was planted in every experience and I grew through having the experiences … in short, I grew wherever I was planted!

……..Every experience is both a choice and the fulfillment of spirit’s insatiable desire for growth

One little word “ever” bloomed the ‘truth flower’ that you are planted in the fertile soil of every life event. Being planted is anything but static or suffocating. It is the result of making a choice to stay and allowing soul’s evolutionary nudges.

As obscure as the choosing might seem sometimes (ie- why would I choose this?), as victimhood-ish as it might feel when something appears to be done to you, there is a higher wisdom at work weaving the subtle hues into life’s tapestry and on that level, every experience is both a choice and the fulfillment of a spirit’s insatiable desire for growth.

Putting it into today’s perspective

The sacred mystery of my husband’s health issues and my journey with him through daily challenges and trials, my sudden and inexplicable steps onto a writing path, the relentless questions and worries about where life leads and the inevitable need to have a prognosis for survival – all have the seeds of growth planted within them.

An external view of our life reflects – stagnant, stuck, stumped, imprisoned and mired in quicksand…It is the experience as viewed by the ‘me’ who was first handed that card so many years ago … Grow Where You Are Planted and it is tinged with threat and victimization. While there are definitely moments of that reality, -ie – we have no control or power here!- there is one other option to consider.

It blinks in and out of clarity  and suggests that,  in order to grow, you need to be planted in whatever is your present life and nowhere else! It is the only way growth and evolution can be nurtured.

Life inside a Pea

Life right now definitely has that ‘we are nowhere else‘ feel. Our collective focus has shrunk to the size of a small pea as evidenced by the rote questions and answers that are part of the endless morning ritual, the days that slide by without any outside contact save keeping medical appointments.  Yet so much else has taken place inside that pea! Release, awareness,  connection,  compassion, reaching out, reaching in, discovery of hidden strengths and weaknesses, life and death choices…

Right here, right now in this moment, in this square foot of life focus…it seems soul-evident that,  enfolded in every breath of this life is limitless spaciousness and access to our vast dimensional reality … that awareness comes only when…

You grow wherever you have chosen to be planted and nowhere else

Filed under: Multidimensional Reality, personal growth, Spiritual Growth, This Physical Reality | Tagged: being in the present moment, being present to your life experience, empowered by choice | Leave a comment »