Today, I will be planting my first perennial garden with a friend.
As I paused to consider the miracle of tender plants with beautiful flowers re-emerging each year from seeming nothingness, I realized that the underground root systems must be quite vast and strong. In order for the plants to return, there must be an amazing network of life below the surface without which no garden would appear.
What a powerful metaphor for life! On the outside, in the physical world, we show up as beautiful blooms as well as death and decay. Our outer existence cycles through joy and pain, ecstasy and suffering, love and hate.
What is it that keeps us coming back from the darkness?
How is it that we “rise again”?
Take a look at folks you know who seem to move through life’s challenges with grace, trust, patience, perhaps even ease.
What is their strength?
If you dig deep enough, you are likely to find a strong, solid, expansive root system below the surface! These individuals likely possess a rich foundation, beliefs and practices, to which they turn over and over again when life presents challenges.
What makes up your hidden foundation?
What daily practices nourish and strengthen it?
What will keep the storms of life from destroying it?