Growth

When I was a child, I would wander into the gardens of my grandfathers’ small farm. In the spring he would begin to prune and plant, and turn soil, cut grasses and fix machinery. I wondered through the gardens as they began to grow, amazed by the sprouting of small seedlings, wondering how strong they were, reaching up through the soil and water, twisting and bending into the light becoming giants. The fruit on the trees remained a mystery to me for a very long time; there were no seeds, only leaves and branches. Then when evening began to set in as the plants grew, they would seemingly disappear into the darkness, and quiet would settle throughout.
As I grew older, I began to realize what human birth was, what growing and learning meant; and though we are not vegetables, fruits or grasses, we began to reach into the world as part of our maturity. Stabilizing my mental health after a draught was unbearable, yet I remembered the gardens.
If we want to grow beyond the illness’s we have harbored then we must heal; which means letting go of the fears we have and becoming involved with the mental health therapist and case managers, whether we have addictions, depression, or any of the other myriad of illness’ one might have. This is turning the soil and feeding it, so that planting can begin.
Some of us have to be taught to listen, this is planting, and when we become strong listeners we are then ready for growth. Our experiences we begin to relinquish are the storms of rain and sunlight we were nurtured with and we learn to leave this past behind for someone else to learn from. Our beliefs and experiences can be changed and as they change we become stronger in a positive way as we begin to see ourselves and what we really want to experience aside from the pain of our sufferings. We change our ideals and our beginning as our needs grow; we grow stronger and begin to show the fruits of our new beliefs.
As we mature, we seek motivation and become self sufficient and responsible, we cultivate ourselves from one step to the next; we have grown anew.
By Donald Sammons

Some excerpts are from:
Healing Stage One: Personal Growth
Written by Jerry Lopper