
Photo: Reinante El Pintor de Fuego.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:”
—Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)
Almost. Did you see that spark? There! It’s catching. Guard it from the wind! Now blow on it! What? It needs oxygen! Dang it. You blew it out. Let me try.
If you have ever started a fire or tried to start one, this exchange sounds amusingly familiar. I smile remembering us little scouts hovering around a campfire, taking turns striking and blowing at the embers until it grew into a victorious furnace of heat. Back then we did not realize the principle we were learning.
As the fires of life sparked, raged or fizzled, the magical interplay between oxygen and fire started to take on new meaning. If you apply oxygen at the right time in the right amount, you will have a wonderful growing fire. And if you apply too much oxygen too early or not enough, you won’t. Building fires reminds me to ask the question elsewhere in life, is my timing and intensity off? Sometimes we strive and toil at something so hard, we miss this key question and principle.
Sometimes all it takes is adjusting your timing and intensity to turn a negative into a positive.
See if you can apply this principle in your life. The next time your life serves up a situation that is not quite working out in a positive way, don’t give up before identifying the oxygen and fire, then applying the principle. Is this the best time? Is this the right amount? I hope this serves you well.
Weeding Your Mental Garden
Photo: Jeremy Avnet.
You want to create something amazing. Have an impact. Make a difference. One beautiful day at a time. You want to bring the right people into your life, but they seem to leave as fast as they arrive. You try so hard and seem to make little perceivable progress. You beat yourself up. In public. On your blog. Repeatedly.
You are one hot mess.
Why? Your head is full of strong, healthy weeds. And you haven’t done any heavy weeding in a long time. The flowers are sparse and anemic, you have little good soil to work with, and the weeds are so familiar that you forgot they are unwelcome. Some even look like trees. They crowd out good ideas, good opportunities, and good people that want to take root in your life. Instead of people coming into your life and growing in a pruned garden, they are faced with man-eating Venus Flytraps and thick tangling weeds. The soil is so toxic, they cannot grow and quickly leave.
My hope is to paint a picture of some of the nasty weeds that can grow in one’s life in order to jump start the weeding process. If you identify with any, and God knows I am speaking from experience, I want to encourage you and remind myself to be diligent in keeping our mental gardens hospitable to all who visit. To guard our gates wisely.
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