Little Stones
By any standard it was an
ordinary garden. You could say it was
your garden-variety garden. It started
with a pile of dirt left over from excavation needed to build a small
garage. Not having any place to put it, he
decided to level it off and let it where it had been piled. To keep if from drifting, he placed some old
bricks around it. The dirt pile included some big rocks and some construction
debris. They were big, visible, and easy
to pick up and clear out. There were also many small stones, but he
thought they were too small to cause any problems.
The plot had plenty of sun
during the day, and it was situated at a spot where keeping the soil moist was
not a problem. After a little raking it was
flat and ready to plant. Several random
varieties of flower seeds were scatted over the small plot and gently raked
into the soil. A little water was all
that was needed to complete this small flower garden.
Over the next few days,
tiny sprouts appeared among the inevitable grass and weeds that also began to
show themselves. Fortunately the grass and weeds grew faster than the flowers,
so they were easy to spot and could be pulled.
As the days passed, the flower sprouts continued to grow, and soon the
plot was dotted with a variety of colors.
When it was apparent that the seeds that were going to sprout had done
so, it was obvious that many of the seeds scattered did not sprout. The harvest was low that first year.
As spring turned to fall
and the flowers began to wilt and die, an interesting pattern emerged. Watering the garden and the summer rains had
brought an almost countless number of small stones to the surface. With the stems of the dead flowers still
standing, it was easy to see way so many of the seeds never germinated. The small stones had stood in their way, and
there were plenty of them.
Although the plot was not
large by any means, getting all of the small stones was going to take a lot of
time and would require more than a little effort. It was fall, the garden would lay dormant
until the spring, so there was time to get the job done before the next
planting. The gardener, a rather patient
soul, decided that he would pick ten of the small stones out every time he
passed the plot. By doing so he wouldn’t
have to disturb the bed or engage in the heavy task of screening the entire
plot to get rid of the stone.
Little by little he removed
that which kept so many of his seeds from sprouting. Over the next three years, he stuck to his
plan. The benefits of picking the little stones were easy to see, as his garden
became more and more full of flowers each summer. He planted the same number of seed packets,
but the harvest grew bigger and bigger each year. His
ongoing efforts paid ongoing dividends.
The lesson for gardeners is
clear, and there is a big life lesson in it as well. In most of your endeavors in life, you can
easily see the big obstacles, and if they can be moved, most folks do what they
can to get them out of the way. The
small obstacles, the ones we can barely see, ones that seem too small to really
matter, are often ignored. Sure, there
is still progress, and, as in the case of the garden, much of what you do takes
root, grows, and blooms. Nonetheless,
the small stones in your life, the little obstacles you face, may well be
keeping you from reaching a richer, fuller potential of which you are
capable.
Like the gardener, take a
look around and see if there may be some small stones keeping some of your
potential from blooming. If you find
some, and you probably will, don't try to gather them all on the first
pass. More than likely they didn't get
there in a day, so there is no good reason to think you have to eliminate them
all in a day. There may also be some that
are too heavy, too deeply imbedded, or just impossible to move. Let them there and work around them. With a little effort and a bit of patience,
you'll be surprised how many little obstacles you can clear from your plot in
life and how much easier your life will become.
Patiently removing the
little stones from your plot in life is time and energy well spent. After all, who wouldn't like to make their
life a little easier and more productive!