Bloom where you are planted.

  Since Spring is only 9 days away {!!!!!}, I've been packing away the few pinecones and other winter-y decorations we have around house. Yesterday I started digging around for my spring-y things, you know, the same 4 teal glass jars I put on the mantel every year. I'm a creature of habit, and I own it shamelessly. Now, if only I can get myself to WholeFoods for a cheap bouquet of daffodils and my spring set-up will be complete {and identical to years past}. 

  But anyways. Where was I going with this? Oh! That print. When I was searching for all my blue glass pieces, I dug out this print. Oh this print. 

  I picked it up on my trip to Denver two years ago while I was visiting my best friend. When I bought it, I was very much in need of that reminder. Or direction, really. We'd lost our first baby and were months into trying to get pregnant again. A lot of life seemed hinged around those things. And I'd say that print and that trip were a catalyst for change. 

  On my last night in Denver, Lauren and I went to a little Thai {was it Thai?} restaurant. I remember eating some sort of shrimp fried rice-ish dish and loving it. And we talked about our lives looking differently than we'd expected. We both got married the same summer, only two weeks apart, and both slowly settled into our newlywed lives in our small college town before moving on to bigger adventures. Those early days were so, so simple. Over our Thai food in that little place outside of Denver, we talked about how life after that was anything but simple. In turns out that bigger adventures don't always mean better things. Why did we have to work and fight so hard for community? We knew infant loss and infertility happened, but why did they happen to us? And, somewhere in the conversation, I remember talking about {or hearing Lauren say? She's always the wise one between us} that we knew God was there in our very non-simple lives. That, even if we were always so tempted to want the lives of friends we knew who seemed to have everything comes easily, it wasn't for us. Others may, but you cannot, if you will. Somehow Lauren and I always came back to that. 

  I don't remember what else we talked about, and while I'm sure I'm making it all sound very melodramatic, it wasn't at all. It was one of the most life-giving meals and conversations I've ever had. I heard Lauren, in so many words, urge me to live. Right where I was. Not to keep waiting on what I wanted to happen or for things to line up just so. But to be all in where I was, because dreaming of someone else's life wasn't useful at all. 

  My flight home from that trip was really early in the morning. Painfully early. But as I sat on the plane, I really felt refreshed. I came home and started living. I framed that print and, cheese alert, started blooming where I was planted. I started choosing joy, even if my life circumstances weren't my favorite. I found a new job I loved, I worked hard to build a community of women around me, and, yes, we eventually got pregnant. 

  But anyways, that print. I think it's always relevant for me. I'm always putting something on hold for one day, when everything lines up just right. That's when I'll call that person I haven't talked to in forever. Or when I'll take this leap of faith. Or when I'll finally get serious about getting back into running or making Bible study a daily priority. So I found a place for it in our living room today, and it keeps reminding me of that conversation over Thai food{ok, was it Thai? Now I'm really starting to question my memory} with a friend who always seems to speak right to the heart of things for me. About how maybe we have seasons of life being simple or not at all, and each are ok. And not to compare where I am with where someone else is. But mostly, to bloom where I'm planted. Right now, to stop waiting. 

  So that's my friendly nudge for you today, too. Let's bloom where we're planted, wherever we find ourselves right now. Do what you've been putting on hold for too long. Dig in and start growing.

  And now I'm super motivated to start garden planning...