Be Rooted

Flowers are like the highlights of your life. Those moments you feel so excited or proud of special that you burst into pretty colors and everyone around you notices. But what about the "winter" season when you're hunkered down, working hard, and don't feel particularly pretty?

A flower is the temporary result of year-round growth.

Before the success comes the struggle.

Before the achievement comes the anxiety.

The world shows up to applaud your perfect petals. But you're the one who has to live with yourself when you're just a stem in the dirt.

Pressuring ourselves to become the flashiest flowers leaves us shallow. Instead, strengthen your roots. Dig deep into the places that feed your soul. Refuse to get caught up in the world's frantic pace, social media's endless scrolling, and your own self-defeating thoughts. Cultivate what's beneath the surface: spiritual peace, physical health, emotional awareness. These things require me to look inward. To be honest about what I need and where I'm struggling. Then they require me to act outward. To get praying, moving, journaling.

When you're rooted in good things, your beauty and strength will naturally burst through the surface to brighten other people's day.

This writer's nook went silent for months. If new posts, likes, and followers are "flowers" then I've been an ugly plant this season. But while I've been out of sight, I've cultivated a new career, a new place to call home, and new relationships. Only now, at the year's end, do I have enough time to pick my brain, make my thoughts sound pretty, and post them on the internet.

I want to be a vibrant, hearty plant that enjoys its little corner of the world and soaks up the light. That process is often messy. Weeds choke my thoughts and crowd into my routine. Very hungry caterpillars nibble away at my energy or self-confidence. Sometimes the sky pelts me with so much rain that my petals fall off and I become a stick-in-the-mud. But my roots hold me steady.

So be grounded--and be stable. Keep going--and you'll keep growing.

Your worth is not defined by your brightest-colored, sweetest-smelling moments. Flowers are perks that come when you nourish the whole you in every season.