This year, I've experimented with a different schedule of fertilizing. My plants on that side of my garden are just simply not growing, no matter how much I water them. After running soil tests last week, I found out why: the dirt's got nothing. No potassium, no nitrogen, no phosphorus. Dead ground. But it isn't so easy as to just dump some fertilizer and walk away. Though the problem is simply and easily diagnosed, the solution is more complicated. We have to put the right fertilizers on at the right time and in the right way. If we are too busy or distracted to fertilize properly, our gardens will struggle.
It got me thinking about life and relationships. If we don't put essential nutrients into our relationship at the right time and in the right way, they often leach away. We can't give love in the way we expect to give love or in the way it is convenient for us and hope that it will enrich and nourish our loved ones.
Just the other night, I was playing on my phone trying to unwind for bed. My daughter kept pestering me. My frustration was rising as I tried to convince her to lay down quietly and go to sleep. Finally, it got through my thick skull: she needed me. I needed to unwind, but she needed my attention. My rising frustration was an excellent soil test: I needed to provide something to my relationship with my daughter that was currently lacking. So I put down the cell phone and cuddled her. Within minutes, she was asleep and I was able to go back to my reading in order to sleep myself.
May I learn how to better fertilize my garden and my loving relationships.
