Blog #590: It Got Me Here

I’ve passed the house 100 times.

Each time I do…
I notice an extra happy flowerpot.

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It’s in the middle of the lawn.

It’s a pot turned flat on its side as if it were tipped over…and the flowers appear as if they’re pouring out of it and into the world.

It feels happy.

It’s one of those kind things I see that makes me smile.

For me…

It’s good to purposefully pay attention and notice the kind things in a world that shouts at us to see the unkind things.

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On this particular day…

I noted the older gentleman who lives there had yard tools lying around the pot…including a shovel. I cringed thinking his mission was to dig up the pot.

And flowers.

Before he went through with his task, my heart pushed out the words: “Your pot and flowers are so beautiful. Every time I walk by, I notice it and smile. Thank you for that.”

He looked at me.

He looked at the pot.

He looked back at me.

“I think the same,” he said. “But my wife wants me to dig it all up and plant grass. She doesn’t like the pot. I guess I don’t have much of a choice.”

“Ahhh.”

That’s all I said.

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Thirty minutes later…

I was walking in the reverse direction and noted the “Resident Gardener” and his tools were missing from the yard.

The pot with the flowers was still in the ground.

“The pot won,” I thought.

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The next day…

Same time.

Same place.

Same tools.

Different Resident Gardner.

With the flowers already pulled, the wife was in the process of digging up the implanted pot. Perhaps I was pushing it, but I had to say it. I smiled and said: “That sure is a beautiful pot. I love the flowers that flow out of it.”

She looked at me.

She looked at the pot.

She looked back at me.

“My husband came back into the house yesterday saying the same thing. But I don’t like it. He wouldn’t take it out, but I am.”

“Ahhh.”

That’s all I said.

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Later, on my reverse walk home…

There was a big, empty spot in the yard where the pot and flowers once smiled.

I did catch sight of the sad pot now hiding up near the house.

Without flowers.

But I’m still hoping.

I’ve discovered in life…

Planted words often lead to planted “flowers.”

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Life changes every day.

The buds…once on the tree.

The leaves…now on the ground.

The young body…that once hiked mountains.

The old body…that now aches to get out of bed.

The topic…once out of the news.

The topic…now back on the front page.

The greatest pet in the world…once faithfully by our side.

The greatest pet in the world…now permanently living in our memory.

The trip…we once excitedly packed for.

The trip…we now reminisce about while unpacking.

How many 10,000 other examples can I list?

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Change.

It’s the routine of a day’s life to change something.

For health and harmony, it’s probably a pretty good idea to get used to it and flow with it. If we don’t, life’s biggest changes have the potential to crush us.

When I start to feel a little buggy about changes I don’t like, I remember this:

“Something positive is gonna’ grow from this.”

In my greatest life disasters…

It’s MY experience that something positive has grown BECAUSE the change happened. Of course, I can keep hanging on mentally and emotionally to the changes I don’t like…but what one ounce of happiness will that add to my life?

I’m thinkin’ NONE.

The more I quiet the negative whispers in my head and allow myself to be open to life’s evolving BIG picture…the more I give myself a chance to flow forward into the next stage of my life.

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Change.

It’s 100% gonna’ happen.

And when it unsympathetically knocks you to the ground…

May you find the courage to get up.

May you find the hope to move forward.

May you find the insight to do something positive with it.

S.