The Power of Words

As part of the on ramp to my days, I read a couple daily devotion books, meditate, then read a non-fiction book for 5-10 minutes. I was recently struck by how powerful these words were that described an individual’s spiritual awakening. Perhaps this landed so strongly with me because I fancy myself a gardener and love all things nature. But the phrasing and imagery expressed was so beautiful, I had to share it.

“He was on different footing. His roots grasped a new soil.”

Think about transplanting the treasures from the plastic store pots to our gardens. We amend the soil and make the most hospitable home for our newly found plant friends to thrive and grow. This is the analogy described here, “…grasped a new soil.” When we make those Sustainably Productive (Sus Pro) small adjustments, we allow ourselves to grasp new soil, to take root inch by inch in a new way of living.

“It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.”

I don’t know about you, but I am often too smart for my own good. While I am full of righteous indignation, I am on the mountain top alone. And it is cold up there. By giving up what we must, we can melt that icy exterior of our protective walls and step into the sunlight.

And we can do this as many times as it takes.

“I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my new-found Friend take them away, root and branch.”

Source: photo by József Koller on Unsplash

Please tell me I am not the only one whose weed pulling never ends. Pruning branches, removing volunteer plants, weeding, weeding weeding – it does not end. But we do have a better chance at removing the offender if we take the time to dig to get to the bottom of the root. We may not get as many weeds, but if we ruthlessly get to the bottom of one at a time, we will slowly make a difference.

The same can be said for the things that do not serve us anymore. Do we have attitudes that are no longer productive? What about habits that are not sustainable? In order to get rid of them and make way for more Sus Pro habits, we need to remove them root and branch. With thorough interrogation as to why they took root there in the first place. Perhaps you were raised to believe you could not take a rest and always had to be busy. Maybe being perceived as overweight was shamed in your family growing up. Some people feel an expectation to never say I don’t know. Get to the root of the issue to eradicate it.

“I felt lifted up, as though the great clean wind of a mountain top blew through and through.”

As much as I love summer, the cold bracing air of a winter wind does feel cleansing. Especially when it is accompanied by a piercing blue sky and a fresh dumping of snow. That is the image I can see and feel – almost even smell! – when I read about the “great clean wind of a mountain top”.