The Process of Growth
In a world of shortcuts, life hacks, and overnight success, the natural process of growth is astoundingly slow. It requires patience, waiting, and an essential understanding of the process that is so counter cultural… so SLOW in our fast-paced world.
When it comes to plants – flowers to vegetables to trees and everything in between – a 10-minute drive to Hy-vee and we can be walking out with whatever we desire. There’s no need for all of us to have a backyard garden and buy our own seeds.
So you can only imagine my awe when for three years of college I shared a room with Jenna Griffith – a Landscape Architecture major with a major green thumb. When I came to move into Martin 2410 freshman year, I brought a couple of fake Hobby Lobby flowers to decorate, while Jenna brought 20+ REAL PLANTS that I’ve had the privilege of watching grow through our years at Iowa State.
To no one’s surprise, Jenna’s response to the Longway Question is gardening. To her, she will always choose the old-fashioned way of planting her own produce instead of buying it at the store. Why all this effort?
Her three major reasons include…
Connection with nature. Jenna loves that gardening “gets me outside and allows me to connect with the land… I love getting my hands dirty and interacting with God’s creation.”
The produce. To her, the fresh produce from her garden tastes better, not only because of it simply being fresh but because of the time and energy she invested into producing it. She also mentioned that growing and eating food from her garden helps motivate her to eat healthier!
The process. Finally, Jenna talked about the satisfaction of watching growth happen. “Life in action” is what she called it specifically. As her roommate of three years, I got to secondly handly experience the joy it would bring Jenna – and me – when a flower would bloom, a new sprout would suddenly appear, and what once was a little baby plant suddenly outgrew its little pot.
My friend Maddie, who grew up landscaping with her family every summer, especially agrees with point number three. She specifically talks about the joy of planting flower seeds and then watching the process of them grow and eventually become beautiful blooms. I loved hearing her perspective on appreciating the process: “Growing flowers, and the patience that it requires, helps me appreciate all the stages of growth – from the seed to the final flower – instead of just seeing the final result.”
Talking about the “process of growth” with my friends made me think deeply about how that applies to us as human beings as well. In an age of social media, we often only see the “blooming flowers” stages of people’s lives – and there’s a sweetness in being able to share and celebrate with people during those exciting times – high school prom, graduating school, getting married, bucket-list adventures, dream jobs, growing families, good friends, etc.
But what edited photos often can’t capture is the process, and there’s a danger when we compare our “growing season” to someone else’s “harvest time”.
Behind the photo of the happy graduate popping a bottle of champagne are years of running-on-caffeine long days, studying-at-the-library late nights, and living on a grocery budget of rice and chicken.
Prior to the exciting gender reveal were dark and painful nights of coming back from the hospital hopeless and crying.
The family Christmas card, where everyone’s smiling in their matching pajamas, doesn’t show the slamming doors, harsh words, and repeated “I’m sorrys” and “I forgive yous”.
The move across the country for the dream job came at the price of saying goodbye to dear family and friends. The picture-perfect wedding album doesn’t capture the stressful months of planning and following months of debt. The first-place medal was sponsored by physical therapy appointments, aspirin, and saying no to a lot of other fun things.
To say that every good and joyful thing is tainted with darkness and pain is a pessimistic way to look at things, but I believe it’s important that we value process and take the time to listen to stories. There’s joy in the journey – and there’s a deeper appreciation that comes when the mountain peaks of life are reached after a long, hard journey.
In the famous words of Miley Cyrus, “it’s the climb”. It’s the beauty of “the long way”. It’s appreciating the blooming flowers of springtime after a long dead season of winter. It’s planting a seed and celebrating the first sprout, the first bud, AND the first bloom.
Here’s to seasons of life, and to leaning into the value and beauty of each and every one!
