the happiness garden

so i've been thinking lately about things going on in my boyfriend's life and how they're affecting him, and long story short, i think a big part of his problem (and lots of other people's too) is that happiness is not a goal you can attain or a destination you can get to.

happiness is a seed.

it's there, and it's in you, and you can do things to nurture it and let it grow -- but it won't be rushed. there's only so fast it will break through the soil and lift its little leaflets to the sun, only so fast it will sprout up and bloom, only so fast it will produce its own seeds that can sprout and bloom in their own time.

if you push and try to do more and more and more of a thing that helps it grow, you may end up with the same result as overwatering a plant.

but if you don't do anything, the seed's just going to sit in the ground and go nowhere.

it takes work to get that seed to crack open. you have to learn how much water it needs and when, what kind of plant food is best for it. you have to be patient over the fact that sometimes you're left staring at the dirt waiting.

but if you know the seed is there, and you know you're doing what it needs, you know you've got something magical to look forward to. you know that life and beauty wait in the future because you're tending to that seed.

maybe you need to plant several kinds of seeds and see which ones grow best under the conditions you're in.

there are going to be setbacks, like bugs coming in to chew on the pretty leaves and flowers, storms that knock over stems, droughts that parch everything out -- especially if you live somewhere with water restrictions.

but the more you try, the more you find out what works. the more your seeds grow. the more they bring out flowers and multiply your number of seeds way beyond your starting supply.

the more seeds you end up having available to share with other people.

if you do the things you know to do, your happiness garden will get there. maybe slowly, but it will get there. some parts will die back in a cold spell, some parts will start to get choked out by weeds you'll need to pull. the thing you have to do is understand that you know what the garden needs, and the more you tinker with it, carefully, the more you know about how to make it flourish. 

anyway, i guess what i'm saying is, i need to poke this guy into getting out the watering can and topsoil and gardening gloves and all the things we both know he already has, because right now he's kinda just stuck on a couple of plants that are just doing okay in the pots he's got them in.

which maybe is fine when you've only got room for a couple of plant pots in your apartment ...

but msg and i both know he's got fields and fields out there waiting for him.

most people do too. they just need to get the hang of watering those couple of flowers into good enough shape that they can look up from the pots and look out through the window, and see all the ground that's waiting to be planted.