Late April forever delights me. Here in the Northeast, we witness not only the emergence, but downright explosion of plant life from its dormancy. The abundance of new green growth and of flowering brings with it a vibrancy and hope for renewal amidst all that ails us collectively.
Many of us just plain love to grow stuff; communities, ideas, businesses, AND our babies of all kinds. It’s a beautiful part of being human. We also have the ability to destroy. And yet, the balance to date seems to tip in favor of creating and nurturing. Until it doesn’t. Let’s work to keep that precious edge on the side of growth.
If we’re not confident in our nurturing skills, we can start small. Again, plant life is basically very generous in its call to us to become growers. Plant life is programmed to thrive, and it invites us to educate ourselves and learn how best to support it. When we challenge ourselves to take on another life form and be responsible for its well-being, we move from trepidation to possibility to the happiness of knowing we played a role in its fruition. Sometimes we fail because we didn’t dig deeply enough, but we can keep evolving ourselves if we don’t give up. Plants will forgive us and as we expand our ability to nurture, we can take this innate talent and apply it more widely to all aspects of our life.
There truly are few things more deeply satisfying than encouraging things to grow. All things. But the cool thing about growing plants that we consume and then become a part of us, is that it completes a cycle. We put our intention and effort into the plant - we engage with it - and the plant in turn offers that energy - magnified - back into us. In this process, we affirm the practice of giving, which, along with empathy, is at the heart of nurturing.