Process > Product

I am patient and accepting of myself and others

I grew up in a small rural community and our house was on 5 acres of land.  My dad loved to garden and used as much of our land as could be managed to grow a variety of crops.  It seemed closer to small scale farming than what most people would consider a normal garden.  I remember many summer mornings weeding row after row of corn feeling like a chain-gang prisoner and I would swear to myself that when I was older I would NEVER have a garden.

Not only do I have a garden but for the last several years I've spent countless hours cutting back a jungle of Pfitzer bushes and hauling off truck load after truck load of branches and roots to make more gardening space.  Although I still don't necessarily enjoy weeding, gardening has a tendency to teach me things and help me connect with myself, nature and my Higher Power.

I am often impatient with myself and others.  In particular if I have something I am trying to change, learn, or improve on, I often want to just get there as quickly as possible.  I don't appreciate the difficulty of the process and focus far too much on the product.  When I reject myself and focus on what I am not, rather than accepting where I am in the process I undermine my own growth.  It creates unreal expectations and distorts how I see things.  When I am patient and understand life as a process of growth and not some race to a finished product I see the world as it should be; full of the various stages of life, beauty and imperfection.

When I garden I do not despise the seed that has not yet begun to flower or bear fruit, just as I should not judge myself and others who are still in the process of growing and blooming. The process is what is important and I will accept myself wherever I am in that journey.  Patiently I will continue to grow and learn.