I’ve been kind of absent as of late, but everything’s fine! Just got busy at work and on my yard because summer finally arrived in our mountain valley and when that happens one can’t waste any time with the short growing season and all. But everything is coming out beautifully! Even better than I thought it would last year.
And I have to tell you. After thirty years plus of smoking and then facing the reality that I was an addict over six years ago, I’ve found myself doing more than just creating the garden. Now, I find myself just looking at it in surprise! I’m seeing what has evolved over the six plus years that we’ve lived here, on our little spot.
You see, shortly after I moved here, I quit smoking. And as such I see the evolution of my little yard as a kind of freedom garden. It’s grown with me as I fought off my own addiction. As I became healthier, so too did the yard grow and flourish into a kind of beauty that I never expected.
And it started so long ago, with the first seeds planted and the first bits of water to make them sprout. Piece by piece, day by day I built a little more and gradually it became a thing of harmony and beauty, all because I planted those first seeds so long ago.
And just as my garden grew, so too did my quit. Through the years, I found more health in life. I found a kind of peace that I never would have known had I chosen to keep smoking. And rather than smoking, I use that time to enjoy the future that I created in the past, way back when I made the wonderful choice to quit smoking. I’m now living the story that I longed for way back then.
Perhaps you’re in that place right near the beginning of your quit, where everything seems so darn confusing. That place where we first face the reality of our own addictions. That place where we know that what we’re doing is wrong, even as we continue to smoke. That our addiction is wrong and that it somehow doesn’t quite fit the story that we want to see as our future.
The fear is intense! I know. I’ve been there! But if we can see through the cloud of our addictions to what is the reality of our futures, than we can become free! We can become the very thing that we long to be. We can take the first faltering steps into a new and wonderful future, creating a different future then it would be without making the choice to find our own freedom.
Freedom’s never easy. And it’s not free. We have to fight to get there. We have to long for freedom more than anything else. We have to commit for the long haul! And if we can commit to ourselves. If we can believe that the world can be entirely different than it is now, then we can win!
There’s so much wonder in life and it’s so darn beautiful! Go for it! You can do it and before long, it’ll be you creating that beautiful garden of life. It’ll be you seeing the world free of the cloud of addiction. It’ll be you looking at the beautiful garden that you created and wondering why you never saw the possibilities before.
Your future awaits you. All you have to do is make it what you want it to be . . .
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!
Chuck
