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The Wisdom Growing in My Garden

Manifesting in Baby Bell Peppers

By Chris Dunmire, CurrentLiving.com

When I first took up gardening two summers ago, I didn’t realize how much I’d learn from the process of planting and cultivating flowers, fruits, and vegetables from the rich soil in my own back yard. I started out simply wanting pretty things to grow and good things to eat, but what I’ve reaped is so much more, including a perpetual crop of metaphoric wisdom that transfers beautifully into my creative life.

Here’s an example: Earlier this week while watering the garden, I noticed two tiny green bell peppers beginning to sprout from their stems on a plant. Excited, I put down the hose and crouched in for a closer look because this is the first time I’ve seen these peppers so small. I was amused at their cuteness — they were exact miniatures of their larger counterparts!

I experienced a moment of awe reflecting on this miracle of life — that something so beautiful and nourishing was growing right before me — replicating itself from another green pepper, from a tiny seed planted in the soil.

Just then, an undeniable knowing washed over me about the process of growth that is patterned in every living thing that begins with a conceptual seed. A human baby, a bell pepper plant, a creative idea … whatever expansion is taking place, manifesting from formless to form, I understood that cultivating patience within myself while allowing the growth to take place in its own timetable was essential.

Bell peppers don’t go from seed to fist-size fruit overnight. Human babies take nine months from conception to birth. And creative ideas, well, their timelines vary and some need a continual stream of nutrients and ongoing care to grow while others demand autonomy to take root and flourish in their own space until harvest time. What's true is that we have so many opportunities to learn how to become expert creativity gardeners.

And I've learned to expect Japanese beetles, energy-diverting weeds, and other complications to arise during creative pregnancy. It’s all part of the process. Cause and effect is a multi-layered teacher that crops up wherever she pleases bearing gifts of choice: 1) manage issues as they arise and grow, or 2) give up in defeat and allow potential to be eaten up or wither away.

All this wisdom from a single bell pepper plant. •

© 2009 Chris Dunmire, CurrentLiving.com. All rights reserved. (8/17/09) Please do not duplicate this article elsewhere without my permission.

About the Author | More by Chris Dunmire
Chris Dunmire is creatively engaged in life as an artist, writer, spiritual seeker, and publisher of the popular Creativity Portal Web site. Learn more at ChrisDunmire.com.