basil in the garden. are you doing this with your energy?

I went to see a good friend and mentor of mine recently. She’s a life coach who works with very very VIP peeps in the corporate sector and if her clients’ “ah ha” moments are anything like mine when I get to hang out with her, they must be high on the fumes of inspiration. When I pulled up outside her comfy-cozy home with a stunning ocean view, she was out in her garden, sun-hat snug on top of her head, bundled in a fleece and a sumptuous scarf, snapping the dead-heads off a flowering plant. You know, gardening. But don’t let the English rose, simple life, small joys setting fool you. There’s more. There is almost ALWAYS more. GROWING IN THE GARDEN I asked for a tour of her garden. She started with the plant she’d been working on, spiky green legs and deep purple blossoms stretching for the sky. “This one,” she said, “has too many dead-heads. They’re the dying blossoms, the parts of the plant that are on their way out, have served their purpose. But if you don’t nip them off, the plant will continue to send energy to them, misdirecting it’s resources into a part of it who’s time has come. So you nip them off, and the plant has more energy for what it really needs, for the parts of it that are still growing.” Okay, this may not be word-for-word EXACTLY what she said–unfortunately I didn’t have a tape recorder to stick under her nose–but trust me, she’s very good at being eloquent and extending metaphors, so it’s not much of a stretch. She’s very inspirey-wordy like that. SPARKS IN THE SKY I just stood there nodding, looking to all the world like a mute observer, sorta just nodding and being all, “Oh, this is just garden talk.” Inside, sparks of recognition were lighting up my sky. Ping! Zing! Oh yes, I GET it! I do! Just a few days before I had made a final decision to exit from a work-related commitment that really felt, well, dead. And I am so ready to move on, to do other things with that time and energy, to fully invest my heart, soul, and energy into my life’s calling. I dead-headed that commitment. SHOES OFF IN THE GRASS HAPPY FREE And, as we wrapped up the garden tour, my friend looked up at me from beneath her sun-hat and said, “So what’s up? You look different. You look all shoes off in the grass, happy-free.” She’s RIGHT. I AM. I am all shoes off in the grass happy free. The parts of me that were dying aren’t sucking my energy any more–and I FEEL stronger. Just check out the new green shade on my fingers! Oh right, that’s from the basil she sent me home with.

Invitation

Where can you dead-head something out of your life? Where are you sending energy to something that’s dying, that could go somewhere that’s growing? What are you trying not to feel? Much love, L