Down Unexpected Paths

 The last couple of weeks, I’ve been putting forth a major effort to get my gardens cleaned-up and ready for some new plants.  It gave me lots of time to think.  Hours in the hot sun, fighting with the weeds-from-hell will do that to you.  

More than fifteen years ago, I started on my perennial flower gardens.  It wasn’t intentional, I sort of fell into it.  Back then I had no idea what an impact my new hobby would have on me.  There are tons of lessons to be learned from gardening.  I’d like to share some of those thoughts.

First is that life can lead us down some totally unexpected paths?  I had no real plans to get into gardening.  My wife and I had tried a couple of vegetable gardens, with less-than-encouraging success.  I never really got excited about it.  Covering the yard in cement and painting it green sounded like a good idea, back then…..at times, it still does.

It wasn’t until I planted my first rose bush, that I got “bitten-by-bug”.  It was called a rose blanket.  Simple to plant, and easy to care for, I loved it.  The soft pink, tiny, roses added a splash of color to our otherwise bland backyard.

I experienced success with that little bush, and it lead to a desire for a bit more.  My wife had been encouraging me to find a hobby, maybe this was it!  Since I’m a visual person by nature, it was a near perfect fix.  I started to look at flower catalogs, and visit the various garden shops with Connie.

I said “near perfect” for a reason.  While I have always enjoyed flowers, when it came to gardening, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.  In a future blog, I’ll share some of my missteps I experienced along the way.

So, the lesson from the garden today is - be willing to travel down some unexpected paths.  We can get in ruts, limiting ourselves.  Sometimes it’s because of fear of failure in trying something new, other times it’s because we have failed, and didn’t like the experience.  Maybe it’s just a fear of the unknown.  

I have started down the path of an author/writer, and have no real idea where it will take me.  Like gardening, I know I’ve got a ton to learn.  There is no question in my mind that there will be some failures, but I can learn from those.

The book itself, Ten Days, took unexpected turns as I was writing.  A minor character became a major character.  I saw the need to include more supporting information into manuscript; there were facts I knew about the storyline as the author, that weren’t entirely clear to the reader.  Finally, writing the book pulled things out of me on a level that were very profound.

In Ten Days, the characters themselves have twists and turns impacting their lives that they never saw coming.  They are each, in different ways, called to a “greater good” than they really foresee at the beginning of the book.  I speak more about all of these things in future blogs.

How about you?  Are there whispers of another interest, another life, faintly working their way into your thoughts?  Explore - be willing to fail.  Don’t let fear hold you back.  There are more lessons coming from the garden.