What does it take to thrive?

The email came on our last day of holiday from the Gardening Committee. Too many weeds, even though we were only gone a week.

That broke the restful groove we’d achieved at our lovely glamping site. We recently joined a collective gardening community, primarily made up of retired men and women, who spend a good amount of their day at their own plot, and checking out their neighbor’s progress. They are lovely people when talking over coffee, but don’t mess around with allowing weeds into the compound. And our week away proved too tempting for those pernicious plants prowling through the ground.

And then I thought: “What were we thinking, getting a community garden plot? It’s so much work on top of everything. Why don’t we just give it up?”

But then I remembered… Soon we will have strawberries every time we come, and fresh carrots. We can whip up a nice rhubarb crumble with freshly plucked stalks, and our boys will know what kind of plant a potato comes from. There is definitely hard work, but there are benefits too.

Our lives are a lot like this.

The garden plot of our own lives needs tending, thoughtful planning, getting rid of the weeds, and persistence, just like a real garden. If we continue working through the challenges, learning new things, and leaving behind bad habits, we can contribute beautifully to others and make our lives meaningful.

Over the years mentoring and coaching women, both in pastoral care and as a human resources professional, I have learned some of the areas that lead us toward flourishing, and by default, also those around us toward flourishing too. I want to share some of these tips with you here. I hope and pray that they will help you too.