What do you do to grow a flower?
It’s a bit of a trick question.
You don’t do anything to grow a flower.
I know you may be thinking that there is plenty to do.
Til the soil.
Plant the seed.
Water it.
Give it light.
Yes, you do all of those things. But none of those grows the flower.
Those actions create the conditions in which the flower can grow.
At least that’s the idea.
If the conditions are right, the flower grows on its own. If you don’t create the right conditions then the flower won’t grow.
So if the flower isn’t growing, then it’s not an issue of needing to do more.
Instead, you need to look at the conditions you’ve created and determine what needs to change.
Different soil?
Nutrients?
More light?
Less light?
More water?
Less water?
Different climate?
Warmer temperatures?
Colder temperatures?
If you’ve never grown this type of flower before you’ll likely need to experiment a bit.
The more you get to know about the flower and the conditions under which it thrives, the less experimenting you’ll need to do.
Here’s what certainly doesn’t work:
Criticizing the flower.
Asking the flower what’s wrong with it.
Being fearful of the flower’s fate.
Expressing your fear to the flower.
Blaming the flower.
Another thing that doesn’t work: assuming all flowers will grow and thrive under the same conditions.
Every flower is different. Although they all need the same basic conditions, the formula that will work for each flower will be different.
We might think we know what our flowers need, and we might be wrong.
It helps to cultivate curiosity about what your flowers need.
In this season of planting it’s helpful to ask yourself:
Are you creating the conditions optimal for your flowers to grow?
Do you even know what those conditions are?
By the way, we often forget that our most important flower is ourselves.
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