This week we are going to start a series inspired by some work we’ve done around the house.  We will start by reflecting on a finished garden and what it took to get there.

The picture on the right is how our garden in the backyard looks.  My wife did all of this.  Isn’t she awesome?  There are walking paths, mosaic stones, flores, a rainbow fence, and other vegetables.  Hanging out on my back patio and looking at this makes me so happy.

Here’s the thing though.  It didn’t start out looking like that.  Now look at the other picture.  It started with just a bunch of dirt.  To get it to where it is now my wife had to put in a lot of work.  She sketched out designs for the garden, purchased the materials, and pulled it all together.  It took weeks of working to get to the end result.

Let’s connect dots. Every day we see images of the final beautiful product.  It’s easy to become obsessed with this finished product and to lose perspective on everything it took to get there.  That success didn’t happen overnight.  It was months and years of hard work. 

The challenge: How can we appreciate the beauty AND the work it took to get there?

Bonus thought- We can be beautiful AND be works in progress at the same time.  Life is just a series of transitions.  Much like the plants in my wife’s garden, sometimes we are blooming and sometimes we are growing and working our way through the dirt.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry