onto what soil have YOU been planted?

This past Spring, when the days became longer, warmer and sunnier, I itched to begin my flower gardens. I visited nurseries and picked out plants that were sturdy and strong, bought special soil and large enough pots, planted them and stood back to admire my process. In a way, I understood how God must have felt when, on the sixth day, He surveyed all He had done and found it to be good.
So did I.

Several weeks later, it was warm enough to plant things in the ground. I again bought sturdy tomato plants, vibrant cucumber plants and bell pepper plants, put them into my garden whose soil I had mixed compost that I had been adding to since the previous year. I was confident when I tossed out my flower seeds that it would all grow well.
And it did.

By mid May, I noticed something unusual: the marigolds that I had purchased from the nursery were wilting, dying off and not looking too good. I gave them water, they had sun, they had this great soil that I spent big bucks on...and yet---I noticed that where I had tossed seeds, the plants were doing SO MUCH BETTER! I have a small plot that I call the Butterfly Garden. This is where the bright, showy flowers go that will attract butterflies all summer long. I had saved marigold seeds from the previous year's plants and just scattered them there. But the seeds were now in  different places where I did NOT put them. I think the birds probably "helped," because I now had tiny plants in my rock garden and in several small cracks of the sidewalk, including alongside the house where I had sprayed a chemical to keep water from seeping into my basement. In fact, all summer those plants grew...and thrived- under the worst circumstances while the plants in my fancy, expensive pots were languishing!

In life, it is the same with certain people. Some go through the worst circumstances and come out so much stronger for it. Strife makes them stronger, challenges makes them better, while others see a hurdle and crumble and falter.

When I lived for awhile in California, I would go with my dad on drives up the Pacific coast. There were trees that clung to the sides of cliffs and thrived. The same was true of my drives through the mountains; again trees were clinging to whatever little ground they had on the mountainside.

We need to be like that. Don't tell me it  can't be done...it has been proven in life...what doesn't kill you will make you stronger.

Say that again: whatever does NOT kill you will make you stronger!

Very few people get out of life unscathed. Many of us bear scars from past abuses, alcoholism, addictions and more. Illnesses take a toll, yet we get back up and keep fighting. Accidents, job losses, any and all ills of society can either make or break us. I think of the Holocaust survivors, of what they had seen and felt and how they survived. Of how veterans from past wars also saw much and went on in life. I also think of those for whom life brings them to their knees.

May God be with you all who have issues that need tissues...may you find comfort and peace. May you become like the flowers who grew in the cracks of my sidewalks, who became lush despite living on the edge. May you find your peace.
Amen.