A couple of months back I was in awe of the growth in my garden. There was new life springing from everywhere and I quickly grabbed it as a metaphor for my life, hoping to incite new growth and abundance for myself. I was on a high as I walked through watching the grape vines bursting with hundreds of grapes and I convinced myself I was heading in the right direction. This was MY year!
Imagine my horror as I walked out there the very next day to find the vines shrivelled and pale and the new grapes falling from their stalks. A late frost had killed them all. Just like that. Gone.
Now, as I had already submitted myself to the thought of this being a euphemism for my own life I felt devastated. I mourned the loss of what could have been, what SHOULD have been. I felt the disappointment and the anxiety and the anger of having things I believed should have been mine, torn from me. Yet again.
And in line with my life, I picked up and went on regardless, vowing to cover the vines before the beginning of next season.
Low and behold, as I let go of the expectation of what should have been, I walked past the vines last week and…… they had recovered and grown more grapes. No, not as many as before, but it had recovered enough to produce.
Hmm, I thought. These vines really are a lot like me. A lot like us all. Just when we have it all planned out, we get redirected, stopped, directions get changed, and if we focus on the loss we fail to see the gift in the making.
As Heather has taught me it’s all about Flow Vs Force. The grapes didn’t force themselves to grow again. They simply allowed themselves to heal and be who they are and could not help but produce the fruit of their true identity.
