On sowing and reaping

While everyone’s busy enjoying virtual Farmville on Facebook, our family’s been busy cultivating an actual farm wherever there is space in our modest garden.  There’s nothing like eating fresh produce from one’s own garden where so much time, love, and attention have been sown. Today, we harvested from our santol tree. It’s amazing to see how much it has borne fruit considering that it started as just a tiny seed that was probably thrown in our garden after a delicious serving of one santol fruit.  We never intended it to grow, but it simply flourished and grew tall and mighty that now, it even holds together our tree house.

Not all the seeds that were thrown in our garden manage to grow, but those that have include the santol, mango, and papaya. Other fruit-bearing trees we have planted are tomato and kamias. We also have a variety of vegetables and herbs like basil, rosemary, tarragon, oregano, and chili peppers.

It is amazing how most of the fruits and veggies we have harvested have given us so much joy and nourishment while some have been a source of disappointment, having wilted due to improper sunshine exposure or overwatering, etc..  It makes me really think about life in general.

Much of what we experience are a result of absorbing and cultivating for many years certain habits that have formed our character and perspectives in life. Much of the relationships we enjoy or don’t enjoy are a testament of how much time and effort we have invested cultivating or wasting away something so valuable. 

Just the other night, my husband Anthony came home from one of his usual out-of-town trips and his updated profile on Facebook read: “The quality of my relationships after a long day at work? 10% the pasalubongs I take home with me, 90% my reaction to the issues that welcome me.”  I told him he passed with flying colors, scoring 150%. His conscious effort to be a blessing to us by being ready to face the good, the bad, and the ugly issues we present to him when he gets home already gives him a head start in winning battles here at the home front, which I am able to learn from as well in dealing with my own personal and professional battles.

While we may not have control of our surroundings just like how a seed could sprout from the ground without anybody planting it there, we do have control of our choices.  We are capable of choosing what we sow in our minds through the things that we allow to shape us like the shows we decide to watch on television, sites we visit on the web, conversations we get into or the relationships we keep. When I tell my children that certain things they do drive me crazy or make me lose my temper, they remind me that it is my choice to get crazy over certain matters or to choose to lose my temper. I must admit they’re right and so I apologize. At the same time, when I choose to get a hold of myself when my tasks become a handful, I continue to be a blessing rather than a burden to the people I value the most.

In his book 3 Seconds, Dr. Les Parrot asserts that it just takes three seconds to make a decision and that if we give our first impulses a second thought, we can actually transform our world. He reiterates that three seconds is all it takes for us to settle for the mindset of whatever to whatever it takes. 

Remember, what we sow is what we reap and we have three seconds to make a choice as to what we will decide to sow in our hearts that will pour out in other people’s lives.  Let’s seriously consider the choices we make today so we won’t have to regret what we will harvest later in life.

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E-mail author at mommymaricel@gmail.com.