Time For Gardening
I subscribe to author Nicholas Boothman’s mailing list. Nick doesn’t send out a lot of emails, but he makes sure that when he does, there is something of value.
I received his latest mailing this morning and felt compelled to share it.
This is the time of year when we all start to think about getting the yard and garden ready for summer enjoyment. Perfect scenario for this gem from Nicholas Boothman:
“Judging by the amount of time most people spend at work, you might think money makes people happy. The results of a study about happiness were released recently and revealed a surprise. Researchers compiled statistics from almost 60 countries and found among other things that, assuming your life is chugging along normally and you can cover most of your obligations, make the mortgage, feed the kids, take a holiday once in a while, what do you think came in at the number 1 spot for giving the most happiness to the most people in the most countries for the most time?
You might think it would be winning the lottery, a promotion at work, a pay raise? You’d be wrong. How about kids or marriage? Spirituality? Helping out your community? Wrong again.
Turns out it was none of the above. The activity that gave the most happiness to the most people for the most time was gardening.
Gardening! That’s right. Think about it for a minute. You plant seeds and watch them grow – some for a season others for years.
Growing stuff is in our nature. I know all you gardeners reading this will get it immediately but not everyone is a gardener. But, in a way perhaps we are all gardeners. Some people plant seeds in the ground. But we all plant seeds in people’s minds: seeds of ideas, seeds of relationships.
We are all constant gardeners and, as any gardener will tell you, ignore your seeds and they’ll wither and perish. How many seeds have you ignored or forgotten? Nourish your seeds, get rid of the weeds, and they’ll flourish and grow. And you’ll be happy.”
This is ancient truth. If you read the Bible, and I admit to being an amateur on the Bible, you will find the parable of the ‘sower’. It’s a wonderful parable about planting seeds. The ‘pause to think’ aspect, of course, is that the story is not really about sowing seeds and planting crops. It is exactly what Nicholas identified. Planting, nurturing and providing fertile ground for people will make you a huge success in life. More importantly, it will make you happy.
To subscribe to Nicholas Boothman’s mailing list you can click this link: I need a Boost.
