OUTGROWING The Space You're In!

Written By Carmel E. Head October 27, 2023

It was a crack that was waiting to happen one way or another. My beautiful terracotta clay flowerpot has cracked in its entirety. A blusterous midweek windstorm swept through my porch. I arrived only to find my Fall harvest pinecone display toppled over and my flowerpot broken into pieces. Arriving home during the end of my busy day to find my porch filled with branches, twigs, and crumbled leaves was not the welcome I was expecting. Needless to say, all of my pinecones were scattered in every direction and my poor display needed a facelift.

As I approached my porch, nothing more astounding caught my eye. It was the terracotta plant pot completely broken; yet the soil and plant were both intact. As I gazed at the pot, it dawned on me that sooner or later that begonia plant would have had to be repotted anyway. It had reached its capacity in the space that it was in. So, I guess the broken pot from the windstorm was the catalyst that led me to working on repotting the plant. Today, with such a beautiful day outside, this afforded me a great opportunity to begin repotting. My due diligence to get going, with garden gloves in tow, called forth an awakening inside of me. I stood looking over my plant with such resolve and revelation. I had a moment of sagacity.

A few years ago, I penned an article, “Room to Grow: Extending Grace” which focused on one of my quotes: “Big Pot. Little Plant. (I encourage you to take a moment to read this empowering article on my blog). In this article, I spoke of a beautiful thriving little plant that I observed growing and sprouting from a snipped piece of stem that formed a root with plenty of room to grow in such a big pot. I spoke about that fact that the plant had much room available for development and likened that to our personal development: giving ourselves grace and room to grow.

Much like that analogy, we can learn much from my recent encounter with the begonias that were literally compacted in a space with not much room for the roots to expand, we too sometimes outgrow the spaces that we are in and could benefit from replanting or cultivating ourselves in bigger spaces where we can expand more; expand our learning experiences, expand our discovery, and even expand our personal development. I learned that although it took a windstorm to crack the pot and push me to repotting, it was a welcome windstorm that pushed me to expanding the roots of the plant and to replant it in a bigger, wider, and deeper pot where it can grow even more.

What an amazing discovery today as I watched this beautiful plant regain a new place to progress and advance. Just like this plant, we too can embrace and embark on a new journey of expansion. Growth is inevitable. Sooner or later, we will expand, learn and glean from new places and spaces. This is definitely a transformational moment. In what ways will you expand yourself today?

Be Transformed,

Carmela