BEFORE CHIA PETS THERE WAS A GARDEN.

New Years thoughts about change and Chia pets.

Did you enter the New Year face first in fatigue?  Is this new year feeling a little bit like the last?

Get in line, the rest of us got here before you.

It’s a New Year and alot of us are trying to make some changes. Maybe we want to lose weight, manage our money and time, find new jobs, be better partners and humans. Below are some personal thoughts and perspectives that I will be keeping in mind when I am eating my big salad and measuring my dressing by the drip.

Watering My Chia Pet Doesn’t Make Me a Horticulturist. Remember Chia Pets? Those novelty gardens that seemed to instantly create a blanket of green plant like substance.  What was it exactly? Didn’t matter. How long did it last? I am not sure. I counted 4 disguarded Chia’s at Goodwill just last week and it got me to thinking…

Don’t we all fall  for the promise of Chia pet-change? THose systems and programs that promise change will be easy, quick or painless? I know I would personally smear seeds on my head if I could lose another 50 lbs. Then I stop and think about the last time I bought anything in a box that turned out to be as cool and life changing as I thought it would?

It reminds me of a Barbie I got for Christmas when I was eight. She had long blond hair, but she came with tiny packets of dye that would instantly change her hair color.  It was glorious! For about 15 minutes.

We were made to be horticulturists of our lives, created to tend a garden. Remember the garden? This New Year is only a few old weeks old. It will take months to unfold and take shape. While we live in an instant world, real change comes differently.

Author, Donald Miller says, “It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things”

In one of my favorite comedies, BEING THERE. Peter Sellers plays Chance, a live in gardener who has never learned to read or write. He has never left the estate until his employer dies. In the real world he meets people in high places who mistake his simple gardening wisdom for profundity. Click on the link above to see my favorite scene.

or read here..

President “Bobby”: Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives? [Long pause]

Chance the Gardener: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.
President “Bobby”: In the garden.
Chance the Gardener: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.
President “Bobby”: Spring and summer.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
President “Bobby”: Then fall and winter.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
Benjamin Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we’re upset by the seasons of our economy.
Chance the Gardener: Yes! There will be growth in the spring!
Benjamin Rand: Hmm!
Chance the Gardener: Hmm!
President “Bobby”: Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time.

Hidden in the humor is the ancient metaphor of the garden and the importance of paying attention to seasons and rythyms. I equate this to listening to the promptings of your head and heart. Intentionally weeding the small useless stuff, digging up the negative roots that choke your passion and courage, liberally watering beauty.  Change takes us back to the garden, it begs us to use all our patience to wait for the right seeds, the perfect season. To do the work and stop hoping for results from instant, boxed systems and promises.

There are days I wish for an easier way, because life is difficult, challenging and clearly out of control. But I also know you and I were created in wild-ness, by a power that defies the laws of gravity. Chia pet-change was never gonna cover that.  Never.

More tomorrow…

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