It’s an unusually hot and dry summer here in the deserts of Arizona. Many 60-100-year-old saguaro cacti are losing limbs or completely collapsing from the heat. My first instinct was to start watering our saguaros, but then I read an interesting article by a local horticulturist.
Overwatering them might ruin the cacti’s photosynthesis process because, in this extreme heat, it never gets cool enough to process the water. The interesting thing is that their seeds are in the sun and dying without water. The saguaro seeds are poorly nourished. They don’t last long in the ground as they’re timed to be released into the environment just before the monsoon hits for them to be appropriately nurtured. They’re waiting for the monsoon so they can be fed. They are dying, just waiting for the water to come.
That got me thinking about my life during drought or lack of nurturing. Do I take the time to feed the garden of my soul? Do I trust that what’s planted in me will grow, and those things deeply seeded in my heart will be beautifully woven together in the tapestry of my life?
How am I tending my soul’s purpose?
In the ancient Psalms of King David, he praises the God who so intricately designed him:
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Psalm 139:14-16
Just like in nature, you contain within your DNA the codes of life, of both the human and the divine because you have Christ, the anointed one, within you. You have planted deep within you dreams and visions still yet to come. You are like an ancient seed planted long ago, yet you must be nurtured and watered to be awakened inside to bud and bloom.
To follow your soul’s calling, dreams, and visions, you must nurture and create space for what is yet to come.
What must you release to create space for what is yet to come for you?
I asked myself this question not too long ago and realized I needed to release the fear and the need to conform to fit in or become what others say I should be. I needed to remove timidity and false humility to show up boldly and fully.
I needed to show up and stop avoiding becoming the truest and highest essence of myself. Hiding may have served me in the past, but now I’m being called to let it go.
So what do you have to release to create space for what is yet to come for you?
There is a sacred order and timing to all things, yet your tendency to overanalyze and overthink can get you out of alignment with your connection to your spirit and the nature of your soul.
If you’re waiting for a monsoon rain to come and wash away all your fears, doubts, and insecurities, you might be waiting a long time. You don’t need to wait for the monsoons.
You can nurture yourself daily by asking your soul what she needs to tell you. You carry her divine wisdom within, and you have a God that loves you with a love beyond anything you can ever imagine. Together, they are your council. Ask them for guidance.
I encourage you to look at anything that doesn’t feel aligned in your life. Anything that feels dried out and no longer of support to you. Trust in the golden thread weaving the pieces of your life together and dedicate yourself to cultivating a life that’s deeply aligned with your soul’s purpose.
