April 14, 2020 – AdaLamar's Blog

First off, I suppose the bruises from my ex Bill Little are healing up nicely. A week old and I am still store and spotted.

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When I was growing up my parents always had a vegetable garden. I remember as a child picking carrots right out of the ground, washing them off and eating them. Those were the sweetest carrot I’ve ever tasted to this day.

Gardens take a lot of work though. You have to prepare the land – clear it and make sure that the soil is the kind in which vegetables can grow. You have to make sure that your rows are neat and somewhat straight. You must also make sure that the vegetables that are planted close to each other are compatible and mutually beneficial with each other.

And that’s just for starters. That does not include all the Care and uptake it takes; the pruning and weeding and watering and fertilizing. There is making sure that there is no overcrowding, that there are proper insecticides to use and you must literally string the green beans on the line so they can grow properly on the vine.

Indeed the devil is in the details, and if you don’t put effort into it, the garden and everything in it will surely fail. And isn’t that the same in life as well? We must work hard to be happy and make sure that we have a life conducive to a healthy lifestyle, emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

We could sit back and be lazy and let life pass us by, let all the things we want fail due to lack of care. Or we could step up and actually participate in making our life successful. And it could be anything from a college degree, to remodeling a house, to having a successful garden, to having a healthy relationship, to having a good and healthy and solid family. Whatever it is we decide that we want in life, it takes care and effort to make it come to fruition.

We can’t just plant the seeds and walk away. No, that’s a guaranteed way to have a life that’s nothing but a mess of an overgrown jungle. And we have all known people who have refused to put the in effort. Those are the people who may look good on paper, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty, when you get down past the surface, they’re the ones whose lives are unraveling. Because it takes care, and effort, and work.

And conversely it’s the same habits that you’re trying to quit. Whether it’s trying to quit drinking, or smoking, or quit eating junk food. Whatever behaviors or demons who are trying to conquer it takes effort. It takes a lot of work to go deep down, where the heart meets the soul and the mind is the tiebreaker. Because to conquer those demons your brain has to rise above your mind and truly rationalize the slaying of the Demons and issues that lead to those bad behaviors.

Most people believe the fairy tale that a good life, a happy life, just magically happens and falls into place. That is not true. Everyday, if you want a good, happy, successful, fulfilling life, a healthy life, then you have to make that decision every day. And every night before you go to bed you have to reaffirm your dedication and review what you could have done better that day, and what you will do better the next day.

I look forward to this Garden season over the summer. I look forward to sharing the vegetables with my neighbors and my friends here in this new place that I live. I look forward to cooking fresh vegetables, straight from my garden, for the people I love the most. And therefore, I must also look forward to all the work, or at the very least be willing to roll up my sleeves and do the hard work takes.

Because we truly appreciate that which we work hard to attain. As Tom Hank’s as character says in A League of Their Own, “It’s the hard that makes it great. If it was easy, everyone would do it.” Not everyone has what it takes to have a good healthy happy fulfilling life. Because not everyone is strong enough or is willing to put in the effort or the work every single day.

Life is short. And the time will pass regardless of the work that you put in. So since the only sure thing is that that time will pass anyway, you might as well work hard while you’re here to have the best life you truly can. I have long said that that which gives you Peace will make you happy. Always keep those who are willing to work hard close to you. Because those are the people who are going to stick by you when life gets hard and messy.