Water for the Soil (or Soul)

How to Make Your Own Watering Can

Nothing fancy for today, but I was in need of a watering can. Our 5 year old doberman, who prances around always with something in her mouth, got a hold of ours and although it does the trick I needed something more delicate to clean the leaves of our plants in the garden after the storm that came through Sunday night. So I indulged myself in a glass of Dr. Pepper at lunch today to empty the 2-liter bottle in the fridge and used a screw and cordless screw driver to put 7 small holes in the lid. 

my "sad" garden :)

2-liter squeeze bottle, great for delicate watering

our injured water can

As I cleaned off the leaves of our plants I was reminded, I might just be the worst gardener! I am very thankful (or maybe hopeful) my skills of taking care of plants has no correlation to the care I give my own children. :) I have seen some of my friends' gardens flourishing by now and the Mr. has questioned whether or not our garden is going to be worthwhile considering all the time I have put into it and the progress (or lack of) it is showing. Through all of this, instead of seeing it as a failure (I will not give up on my garden), I finally saw an avenue to touch on a heart issue I have been wanting to share.

So often we compete with one another to be better at whatever it might be and the world around us has pushed this mentality to "out do" the last person. It's all around us ... posts, pictures, stories that we see as others doing "better" at something than we are. Being a mom, dad, husband, wife, sister, brother, son, daughter, athlete, dancer, artist, crafter, singer. In our homes, at our jobs, with our friends. I mean the list goes on and on!

Here's my revelation, I am committed to live each moment to out-do myself and ONLY myself. If that means, I have a very sad looking garden this year, then next year I am up for the challenge to make adjustments and hopefully have an "unemotional" ;) looking garden next year, and maybe a happy one the following! If I made it through today wishing I could rewind and redo some of my choices as a mom, then tomorrow I will do what I can to make those choices better than they were today. If I have a desire to be better at (fill in the blank), then instead of comparing what I am doing to somebody else, I will compare it to what I have done in the past. We are always improving but don't always notice because we have our focus on how others are performing instead.

I may not always be better than others around me, but I can always be a better me!