👋🤩 Hello FabYOUlous!
I was sitting in our backyard, looking around and appreciating the beautiful trees, birds, plants, and wildlife that bring me so much peace and joy.
Now, I have mentioned before how much I love our little backyard sanctuary.
But this particular morning, I noticed something else.
Some of the beauty I was enjoying was not even in our yard.
We have a six-foot privacy fence surrounding our backyard, but above that fence, I can see beautiful trees growing in our neighbors' yards.
Birds fly from their trees to ours. Branches sway in the distance. Greenery and flowers fills the view.
And although those trees do not belong to us, I still get to enjoy some of the beauty they bring.
It got me thinking: what we grow does not always stay on our side of the fence.
That applies to a lot more than trees.
I wish I could tell you I have a magnificent green thumb and everything I plant immediately flourishes. Umm... Nope. Lol! Mother Nature and I are still working out some details in that department.
But metaphorically?
I am trying really hard to grow something beautiful. Peace. Joy. Love. Kindness. Gratitude. Compassion.
Those are the things I want to plant within myself.
Not because I am always peaceful. I am not.
Not because I am always joyful. Definitely not. Lol!
And certainly not because difficult thoughts and feelings never show up.
I am human.
We all have days when frustration, anger, disappointment, hurt, or sadness move in like weeds we certainly do not remember planting. Lol!
But I have been thinking about the difference between feeling something and feeding something.
Maybe I cannot control every seed that blows into my internal garden.
But I can be more intentional about which ones I water.
Because whatever we continually feed tends to grow.
If I constantly feed bitterness, it grows. If I continually water resentment, that grows too. If I nurture chaos, negativity, or anger, eventually those things can become pretty darn invasive.
And just like those beautiful trees growing beyond my fence, what grows within me does not necessarily stay with me.
It can spill over into the lives of the people around me. My husband. My children. My grandchildren. Friends. Customers. Strangers. Even someone I encounter for only a few seconds.
The same is true for the beautiful things. Peace can spread. Joy can brighten someone else's day. Kindness can travel farther than we will ever know. Love can make another person feel safe. Encouragement can plant a seed in someone who desperately needed it. And gratitude can change the way we see what is already growing around us.
That is pretty powerful when you think about it.
We spend so much time tending to things outside of ourselves: our homes, our yards, our jobs, our responsibilities, our dreams.
But maybe it is worth occasionally asking: what am I growing inside of me, and what am I feeding it?
Because whatever we are nurturing internally may eventually peek over the fence.
I don't think being a good human means having a perfectly manicured internal garden. Goodness knows mine has some weeds.
Maybe it simply means noticing what is growing, pulling a few weeds when we can, giving ourselves good nutrients, planting more of what we hope to bring into the world, and understanding that we will not always get it right.
But we can keep tending the garden. We can feed ourselves things that help peace grow. We can water gratitude. We can plant kindness. We can make room for joy. We can nurture love.
And hopefully, over time, those things become so abundant that they begin spilling over our own little boundaries and adding something beautiful to someone else's view.
Because those trees beyond my fence reminded me: you don't have to own the tree to be blessed by what it grows. And maybe someone else doesn't have to live our life to be blessed by what we are growing within it.
So here is to planting life, nurturing goodness, pulling weeds, and growing something beautiful enough to reach beyond our own fence.
And, as always, until next time, be kind to yourself and Be Your Own Kind of FabYOUlous. 💐🙏🦋
With gratitude, Crystal. 😊
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