The Grass Is Always Greener When You Water It

In the northern United States the grass dries and turns brown in the autumn. In winter what remains is hidden under the snow. In the Deep South the grass is green all year round. There might be a couple of months when it doesn’t have to be mowed. The rare one inch snowstorms can close down entire states. Other than transplanted Northerners, most people stay home. They wait for the snow to melt.

There is no need to water grass in the South. Unless you are in the Appalachians, it is always humid and frequently rains. Living in the South there were times when it rained for days. I prayed for the rains to stop or just plain go away. Especially when we were threatened with hurricanes and tropical storms.

Northerners have come to presume grass needs to be watered all summer long to keep it green and growing. That’s a relatively new idea, mostly since World War II. I was raised not to water or fertilize grass. Letting the grass dry in the summer months meant less mowing. Less work.

Spirituality is like grass.

If you water and feed your spirituality, you will grow. If you let your spirit dry out for long periods of time and don’t feed your soul, you will be left with interludes of stagnation. The dry spells may be for a day or two. They may last years.

In the material world we don’t feel stagnant when our jobs are going great. Our families and friends are thriving. We feel like we’re on top of the world.

The problem only comes with that weird feeling we get every once in a while. We become uneasy. Our lives feel off. Something isn’t right and we have no clue what that could be. We think we’re supposed to be like Julie Andrews at the beginning of The Sound of Music. Every day is supposed to find us singing at the top of our lungs as we dance across the top of a green mountain meadow.

Nice idea, isn’t it? If only it were vaguely related to reality.

Nurturing our souls is work. It would be fantastic of it were just a given. If miracles happened whenever we wanted them. That isn’t life. In real life, we have to work to make miracles happen.

Big miracles, like waking up each day, happen because we take care of ourselves. We feed our bodies. We nourish ourselves with food and drink, preferably healthy food and drink.

Little miracles, like knowing that our souls are thriving, occur because we pay attention.

Look at the wonders that have taken place in our lives. The little details that expand our spirits bit by bit. With those behind us we can keep living for even more miracles.

One of the bigger questions in life is whether we wish to exist in the middle of emotional and spiritual anarchy. Do we want our lives filled with unholy weeds and trash? It’s up to us. We can be in the weeds or we can be in a meadow in the woods. Our lives can be filled with beauty and grace.

It’s a choice.

Life is not a fantasy. This is reality, not something out of Hollywood. Although carelessness can turn our lives into a tragedy far worse than any play or movie. Becoming lazy about our lives, permitting our spirits to wander carelessly, has proven time and again that it is the path to self-destruction.

Over the course of a lifetime working in jobs across the spectrum from religion to politics, high tech to old-time tech, I have seen men and women choose to act in cavalier and thoughtless ways. Self-aggrandizement, slothfulness, and willful mindlessness have led them to chose to make easy decisions rather than good ones. If they decide it’s easier not to water and prune their souls and their behaviors to achieve long-term good rather than short-term satisfaction, they deprive themselves.

Depravity is deprivation. We rob from ourselves when we choose the quick and easy way over the right way. Whether it’s doing what is ultimately moral and ethical for ourselves or the world at large. It’s a decision.

My yards have long been reduced to a few houseplants. When those plants are fertilized, watered and kept in appropriate light and warmth, they grown. When I neglect any of those factors, they begin to wilt.

So, what’s it going to be?

Are you in the mood to wilt or grow?