If you know me at all, you may know that I've felt stuck for awhile. The idea that you may be planted somewhere in life, but that you have control over what happens, was liberating. If we're talking in plant-terms, I can choose to "bloom" and achieve or wither and remain stagnant.
At some point in the last few years following that Disney class, I stumbled upon this quote by Jim Rohm: If you don't like where you are, move. You are not a tree.
Again, for me, it was another "aha!" moment!
Recently though, I've had to think of these ideas realistically and practically, not just as quotes you could find on Pinterest, and I'm finding these ideas to conflict.
Like I mentioned before, I've felt stuck for awhile and I've been trying to make the most of things. I've been trying to bloom where I'm planted. Different circumstances change, and situations occur that make me question why I feel the need to make things work where I am. If I'm not happy with the way things are, I should change them, no?
You can't be the plant that blooms if you are choosing to uproot yourself. This is the idea that I've been struggling with. If you choose to change things and start over, I feel like society makes you feel as though you've failed. Especially if you're not uprooting for the first time.
If we really want to stick with this vegetation metaphor, what is wrong with moving a plant? If we find that it's suffocating and dying where it is, shouldn't we try to give it new life in a new place with new soil for it to take roots?
If we are no longer prospering in our lives, and are finding that we just cannot continue to grow and bloom, shouldn't we move? Or am I being all too assuming that this is the end, but that really you should just keep trying to make things work?
I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this topic.
At what point do you decide that you can no longer bloom where you are planted? At what point do you choose to uproot yourself? Do you try and stick it out to see if things can and will get better or do you change the environment in which you want the growth to take place?
x Lauren
At some point in the last few years following that Disney class, I stumbled upon this quote by Jim Rohm: If you don't like where you are, move. You are not a tree.
Again, for me, it was another "aha!" moment!
Recently though, I've had to think of these ideas realistically and practically, not just as quotes you could find on Pinterest, and I'm finding these ideas to conflict.
Like I mentioned before, I've felt stuck for awhile and I've been trying to make the most of things. I've been trying to bloom where I'm planted. Different circumstances change, and situations occur that make me question why I feel the need to make things work where I am. If I'm not happy with the way things are, I should change them, no?
You can't be the plant that blooms if you are choosing to uproot yourself. This is the idea that I've been struggling with. If you choose to change things and start over, I feel like society makes you feel as though you've failed. Especially if you're not uprooting for the first time.
If we really want to stick with this vegetation metaphor, what is wrong with moving a plant? If we find that it's suffocating and dying where it is, shouldn't we try to give it new life in a new place with new soil for it to take roots?
If we are no longer prospering in our lives, and are finding that we just cannot continue to grow and bloom, shouldn't we move? Or am I being all too assuming that this is the end, but that really you should just keep trying to make things work?
I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this topic.
At what point do you decide that you can no longer bloom where you are planted? At what point do you choose to uproot yourself? Do you try and stick it out to see if things can and will get better or do you change the environment in which you want the growth to take place?
x Lauren
I have a plant that I transplanted and now it's dying. (Just trying to stay with the theme, but seriously, I do.)
ReplyDeleteWhen in a similar situation, which had happened many times to me, I spend so much time wrestling with God. Should I take this class? This job? should I stay and try to make things better? Am I being lazy by staying? Am I being self-centered by wanting to leave?
My experience has been that God worked out great timing that pushed me out when it was time. I look back and say, "I see what you were doing there!" I guess most of the time my uncomfortableness was preparing me to be ready to move on to a new adventure.
I am praying for you to be ready for your next adventure and that it will be easy for you to hear God's voice telling which way to go.
I love these thoughts, Michele! I have been thinking through the same questions… am I just comfortable and lazy? Am I wanting this just for me? I tend to go back and forth with myself.
DeleteI wrote this post a few weeks ago now, but I've already started to see some of God's work at hand. I don't know my next step yet, but I have felt encouraged because I absolutely feel like I'm being prepared for something else. What and when? I don't know. I do know that the current state of feeling uncomfortable will come to an end though, and it seems now like the discomfort will all be worth it one day (maybe even sooner than I originally thought!).
Thank you for sharing your words!
I hope you are well.
x Lauren
I'm no expert on "doing life" or anything but I don't really feel like those two quotes conflict. Like, you can bloom where you've been planted but when it's time to move remember you're not actually a plant? Ha.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought. You're obviously not a plant or a tree so I feel that when you're "logistically" stuck (for monetary reasons, school, children, etc.) to a place perhaps you should embrace the "bloom where you are planted" mentality. But if you've given something a shot and it's not working or it's not beneficial or it's actually detrimental to you or others, you should recognize when it's time to move. Although knowing when the time is right is probably not so easy...
I'm just rambling but that's what I'm thinking lately!
I appreciate your "rambling"--your thoughts are exactly what I was thinking through myself! I definitely agree that the knowing when the time is right thing is definitely not easy because it can leave you thinking "what if?". Thanks for sharing! I'm sorry it took longer for me to see this and reply! :)
Deletex Lauren