I was wandering in the garden and noticed how many supporting structures featured in places in the garden. I found myself getting annoyed at the 'ugliness' of these structures in the place of the plants that were around them. As I pondered my annoyance, I realised that without these structures, many of these beautiful plants and flowers would not be able to bloom. I reflected that eventually, you would not notice the structure, as the plant would have covered it over.
I pondered about how true this was for life and living. There are times in life (obvious ones) when we needed lots of structure. We needed parents to fetch and carry and sometimes to literally hold us while we learned how to walk or ride a bike. Without this, we could not have achieved these milestones. But as we got older, we learned how to leave these behind, with varying degrees of success, and achieve on our own. For a time this became very important - to achieve entirely on our own.
But I wondered how much this need to achieve on our own, stops us in the here and now, from reaching for significant structures when we need them? Is it a lack of trust in others? Is it a bad experience from the past? One thing is for sure, we cannot manage in this life without support from time to time.
Is there a new habit to form, or a difficult relationship to negotiate? Perhaps what we need is to put in place an appropriate structure to help us get there. Call that friend, find the family member or reach out to that professional. Be courageous in order to bloom. Someday, the structure will no longer be visible. But your heart and life will be fuller for being courageous and leaning on something else for a little while.