Story Time
One of my favorite children’s writers is Arnold Lobel, with his Frog & Toad series. Frog is the more patient and disciplined of the two, and Toad is more passionate, less able to sit and wait for things. One story is about growing a garden. Frog gives Toad some seeds and shows him how to plant them. When he is finished planting, Toad shouts repeatedly, “NOW SEEDS, GROW!!!!!” until Frog rushes over and tells him that he’s scaring the seeds. So Toad decides to keep the seeds company, plays violin to them, reads them poetry, and more- until one night he falls asleep right there. When he wakes up, there are little sprouts popping up through the soil. He declares that this was very hard work, indeed.
In life, it is easy to be like Toad when we want change to happen in ourselves, in our lives. We “plant seeds” by doing hard emotional work, and we want to see the results immediately. We don’t trust that there is growth going on under the surface. If we can’t see it, it must not be happening, so we holler at ourselves to change already!
Sometimes, after sowing seeds in ourselves, doing the hard emotional work, it is good to let the seeds germinate without our scrutiny. We can learn a thing or two from Toad. Rather than scare the tender seedlings inside of us, we can give them room to grow while we lovingly create a nurturing environment for them to sprout and thrive.