I love the roses in my backyard. Admittedly there have been years I have not done such a great job at tending to them. Their soil could have used a boost along the way and there were years it seemed I had more weeds than mulch in their bed but nonetheless the roses have thrived. Each year I get dozens of blooms on these sometimes wildly shaped rose bushes. They are one of the most favorite parts of my flower beds.
I have always loved growing different plants in my yard. It’s a place I enjoy spending time and I love seeing an ever blooming bed of flowers, smelling their blooms and having some blossoms to enjoy in the house. It is a sense of pride and accomplishment to bring in a fresh vase of flowers or vine ripened tomato that you grew with your own hands. Sometimes I do rather well with my harvest of flowers and vegetables and other years you can tell I didn’t. Nonetheless each year I spend as much time as I can trying to start my garden and flower beds with the best
I can give it before summer temps take over managing it for me.
There is a saying I heard many years ago from some gardening friends that said only the best blooms grow in dirt. We were talking about the increase in hot houses, hydroponics and other means of growing plants outside of the traditional dirt planting. I didn’t know it at the time but this was a statement that would stick with me. It literally has become a profound statement I find myself referring to quite often. It struck me that so many things that we consider beautiful, prized, accomplished and precious sometimes come from dirty, disgusting, stinky and unappealing situations.
It is an understatement to say I’ve had my share of really challenging times in my life. When I look back and see the accomplishments, achievements, successes and wins I also see the pain, struggle, challenge, frustration, mistakes and more associated with each one of those wins. I see the struggle of trying to start something from nothing, of losing it all, of fighting to keep what I had and surviving incredible pain throughout those pursuits. In many ways it is the dirt of my life. It is the stinky, unappealing, dirty situations I went through since childhood to come out into who I am today. Just like my roses I adore seeing bloom in soil I have not always nurtured or tended to for them, they persisted and grew. So did I.
How often in our lives can we become trapped in only seeing the hard times, what we lack, what we are going through or what may come that we must always be prepared for. We are in the dirt and feeling like we don’t know if it will ever be better. We struggle, fight, push, pull, scream, cry and more. It isn’t easy and we feel at times that dirt is just going to keep us buried. It is difficult to see the journey we are on or how things could be better, even easier. Some days we are not sure how we are still doing what we are doing to go another day.
Yet we all emerge sooner or later. We start to see the light of day and slowly come up out of that dirt shooting straight for the sun. We bloom and blossom under the loving warm rays and heavy raindrops that support us. Our blooms are unique and truly us and what we went through to get to that point. No rose is exactly like another. Their journey through soil, digging deep roots, pushing, fighting, and struggling all led to their ability to bloom and blossom. All the good things blooming come from dirt indeed.
I started Dragonspit Apothecary right in the middle of a crisis I was facing in my career and home. It was the most inopportune time to consider starting a business and still I did it. There are months I want to cry because sales are down or followers fall off from social media. Each small victory comes with at least five new challenges it seems to make this a success. It is the dirt I’m in for the journey of turning this business I started in the middle of a dirty mess into a beautiful bloom.
I believe given there are over 4 million people in the United States working multiple jobs that you too are in the dirt of life. You are like me with the pushing, fighting, struggle to make something more than the stinky, dirty, unappealing plot you find yourself. Growing seems secondary to surviving some days and yet you find this deep passionate intuition that there is something more to it than just surviving. You know while there will be times it seems the dirt will keep you covered you have the drive and tenacity to keep pushing even if it is in the tiniest way.
If this describes you and you’re ready to discover what that could mean, take my New Leader Assessment (it’s free): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ojnr6wd5cB_CU3RNq4IJnfJ2MzHEE12KXo5OGg-bHps/edit
This will provide you insights to determine if having a business on your natural health journey is right for you. It will help you know where you are now and how to develop a plan to emerge from your dirt into a bloom that is in perfect alignment for you.
Grow in dirt my friend.