She Who Gardens, Grows (Part 3)

Green has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember. I always thought the various shades were appealing against my golden skin. And then I’ve always been a lover of the outdoors. I relish being in nature, amongst the treetops, trailing new paths through a neighborhood or wooded area. Everywhere you turn is a cascade of greens from the flowers, plants, and trees. Green has always symbolized life to me. After revisiting my birth home in New Hampshire as a young adult, I finally understood where a bit of this love for nature was first planted.

Fall is certainly my favorite time of year, but there is something about spring I enjoy that isn’t the pollen or erratic temperatures of the South. It is the bloom of new life in all its various colors and shades. It is a reminder that dead things do come back to life. There was a time I didn’t think the resurrection of my life was possible. All was dead including my ambition and desire for anything new to live again. My heart and mind had become oversaturated with negative thoughts and painful blows.

I didn’t stay in that space for long. I pushed forward and kept believing for better days, waking each morning checking to see if the nightmare had yet ended. Even as I regained my fortitude so much had already been weakened and damaged. My faith and hope and likely a lot of pride and stubbornness had become a mask. My experience paralleled what happens to some plant life when it's overwatered and sits in stagnation for too long. The condition is called root rot.

Root rot is an infection that destroys a plant from the ground up; its roots literally “succumb to pathogens of decay” (1). There are so many things in our lives that over time cause us to decay too. Cold words, broken promises, close losses, seemingly purposeless assignments, and untreated hearts and minds that have been contaminated from the outside in and inside out. The challenging part is that we become root rotted without even knowing it just as the first stages of the plant’s disease happen out of sight too.

You can begin recognizing the effects of root rot with symptoms such as these: the passion and light you once had are dimmed; like the leaves and flowers, you’ve withered and who you were has become slightly unrecognizable; your perception is discolored and you frequently misinterpret others’ intentions and actions; you lack consistency in your presentation and are more down than up; and you’re weighted with unhealthy thoughts and emotions that infect the atmosphere and other people.

The pathogens that cause root rot thrive in soggy conditions (1). And the only way to rescue plants, if it isn’t already too late, is to remove them from their current location, washing all the old soil from the roots, cutting all the diseased roots with sterile pruners leaving only what’s healthy, then replanting them in sterile, well-draining soil and avoiding moisture oversaturation again (1). Dealing with decayed areas in our lives isn’t a pretty process either. But we can learn some things while bracing ourselves for what it’s going to take to become whole again.

Sometimes it’s impossible to stay in the same place and with the same people to become well. These contributors stunt your ability to heal. As much as you want to push through and make it work, you may need to assess if it’s time for you or them to move and go. This becomes necessary when you don’t have the space to see that it’s not just those people or that place that’s infected, but it’s you. You’re polluted too, and they are only providing an opportunity to expose your inner decay. My environments and relationships had to change. I could no longer remain with them, and they could no longer remain with me. We were mutually toxic.

Even when you relocate, you’ll still have the residue of where you have been and what’s happened to you. This is why thorough washing and pruning are necessary. Practically, it may mean discarding mementos and anything that reminds you of those people and places. It may mean having a few brief conversations and deleting numbers permanently. And it certainly will mean, draining your heart of bitter roots and retooling your mind with fruitful thoughts. These both will require the Word and prayer. If I could give you a shirt or poster with your next steps it’d read: WASH, READ, PRAY, REPEAT.

You’re going to be at this step for a while. Resist the urge to plant yourself in a new environment or a new relationship just yet, unless you’ve been transported to both for your cleansing process. We’re ready to live again, but like the plants, we first need to learn how to breathe again. We’ve got to sterilize ourselves from all that’s old and atrophied so that we’ll have true revitalization in all that’s to be new and thriving.

Be sure to follow Unveiled61 on social media for another gem nugget while you’re waiting on the next blog. And don’t forget to subscribe to be notified a new blog is available.