sowingseeds

As a parent, I look for ways to help him form stronger roots in areas of character development too. If I see an area where improvement needs to take place, we sit down and talk honestly. Not in a way that will wound or cut the child’s soul, psyche or even ego, but in a way that the child can sense the love, honesty and desire for maturity, for deeper and stronger roots, for becoming that strong and hardy plant that will bloom with beauty.  

After witnessing what drastic changes in weather can do to the plants around us, I began thinking how the daily, nearly imperceptible changes can also affect our “gardens”. At first I would say that this is most noticeable in teenagers, but I’d say that a kid of any age can respond in any given way to the “weather” around him/her. There are days when I wonder from minute to minute how one of my children will respond to a given situation. What they do and say one day may be different the next. And because we have no control over the weather, it is best to help our kids learn how to control their responses to the weather that greets them every day/every minute. Teaching them that life is not always sunny and bright by allowing them to deal with storms, gray clouds and high pressure is an important life skill they will need for strength, maturity and “heartiness”. It would be wonderful if we could guarantee our child balmy, sunny weather filled with rainbow skies. But as this is not the case in any plant’s life, we know it cannot be for our child either. And we also know that the tough times and rainy days make for stronger, healthier plants. Surviving those storms, even if all the leaves get blown away, will make the youngster one day be able to stand straight and tall.