Cultivating a Garden or Scattering Seeds?

In their retirement, my parents purchased land and a charming cabin in the Blue Ridge mountains. They’ve planted a garden to basically sustain the entire mountain community—seriously, in one day my mom made over 100 jars of blackberry jam from her garden. And honestly, they love it.

But my mom’s one true love is her flower gardens. If you visit, she’ll take you around the entire yard, pointing out which flowers are her favorite. She knows how she got every single flower, which she transplanted when they moved, which she took from the side of the road, and which were gifted to her. She can tell you the exact amount of rainfall they’ve had and which plants need full sunlight, and which love the shade.

It’s majorly cute how much she cares for and tends her gardens.

And, after years of caring for the soil, monitoring rain fall, and pulling weeds, she loves to sit on the porch and stare at her garden, looking over the hard work, with a sense of peace and accomplishment.

On a recent visit, I sat alongside her and thought how interesting it was that a garden planted with such attention and detail could feel so spontaneous & alive. I’m serious, every direction you look, there are majestic flower beds bursting with color, texture, and life. There is variation of every kind, flowers spilling along the ground and blooms reaching high towards the sun. Birds, butterflies, and bees all dance a coordinated routine, bumbling from bed to bush.

Honestly, whimsy reminds me of wildflowers—growing wherever they land, or moving to the next place if the first soil wasn’t right. Seeds scattered, spinning around at the mercy of the wind’s current, wild and free. And yet, somehow, whimsy is also the perfect descriptor for my mom’s work too, although the effort and craft behind it is no where near scattered or random.

Isn’t it interesting too, that we often assume that is how life is lived? We cannot imagine that a life of freedom, spontaneity, and whimsy is created through intentional planning and creative process.

So we get hung up when it comes to setting intentional goals & plans for our lives. “Future planning” appears mundane & stiff. Almost as though structure and the attention to detail will take away the spontaneous moments we love. And by default, take away our freedom, and our ability to float along with life’s current.

Yet, my mom’s wild garden, bursting with color and life, is not confined by its creator, but rather inspired and embolden by her.

I am reminded this is true for us as well.

It is precisely what it means to cultivate your life:
to create the blueprint for a life which inspires and brings you fully alive.

Mom’s Garden this past spring. This photo doesn’t even begin to do her yard justice! Can’t wait for her to come to KY & help me plot and plan my own.

Cultivating means getting our hands dirty with hard work. It involves pulling up weeds that do not serve our purpose, and removing rocks that may get in our way. It means planning, investing into things we love, ideas where we find purpose. And waiting, waiting for them to sprout, push through the soil’s surface, and grow. Then, when it is time, enjoying the harvest. Soaking up the sunlight as it pours over our life gardens, rays highlighting the very things that give us enjoyment, freedom, and peace.

This is exactly why I love Cultivate Life Coaching! Coaching gives us the tools & resources to plot out our plans, to do the hard work & figure out what the next right step is, so that we can trade a mundane life for a life that is bursting of color, warmth, and whimsy.

So, today ask yourself, are you a seasoned garden or a highway wildflower?

Let’s set up a complimentary discover call today to explore opportunities to make your life feel more like the life you desire.