Some years ago, when I lived in the country, I planted a garden. At the time, I wanted my daughter to see how amazing a garden can be. To watch vegetables evolve. To witness seeds sprouting, growing into frail seedlings becoming strong plants then fruit-bearing plants.
We rented a farmhouse and the landlord pointed out a nearby pear tree on the north-west corner of the house. We were told we didn’t need to bother with the pears because, in 5fifty years, they had never been any good. They’d always been small and hard.
But something happened that year.
We had an early spring. I mean early for Ohio. In March it started getting warm and the rains came and every seed that fell on the ground seemed to leap right out of it.
We planted in April, and in May, I watered those little seeds every evening. My sister gave me some organic fertilizer/bug repellent recipe to spray through my water hose. By July, our garden was like Jack and the Beanstalk. Hundreds of cherry tomatoes, plump beets, quarts of tomatillos, pecks of squash and green beans, lots of garlic, long carrots, fat radishes and bunches of leaf lettuce.
In the surrounding cornfields, the farmers had planted early, before the April rains. By July, the corn was over 8 feet tall. Even though half of the pear tree fell during a storm one night, (and missed my car and the house) the remaining part of the tree bore fruit. The pears were the largest, sweetest pears I had ever seen, big as softballs. And I never liked pears, but that year changed my mind.
Our sunflowers grew tall and proud. One of them grew to be 9 feet tall. It had three flower heads and several leaves and a strong stalk. The biggest flower head was a foot across, with even more seeds. One leaf of the plant was so large, I made an impression with it in clay and we used it as a platter. While it stood like a sentry over the garden, I pondered how amazing it was that so much plant came out of just one, single, tiny seed. I never really got over it.
What does this mean for you?
And many of us don’t yet know how much greatness is in us. Maybe you haven’t hit your ‘early spring’ but it’s out there, just around the corner. If you get in the right environment, get encouraged and fed the right information, and do the thing you’re wired to do. You will sprout and grow and become strong and bear a lot of good fruit. Greatness is in you. All you have to do is let it out.
What can you do right now to begin tapping into all of your potential?
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