The process of growth

Our front yard is high-maintenance, high-water, have-to-mow-more-than-usual Bermuda grass.  Each year, it is usually a process of transitioning from dormant brown through the winter to green in the spring.

This year, the process has been slower.  I zapped the yard with some weed killer a few weeks ago and then we had hot weather and didn’t get any rain for several days and I think it traumatized the grass.  I told my wife, “Our grass isn’t looking so good.”

I began trying to nurse it back to health.  Watering, fertilizing, watering again… mowing down the taller dormant grass so the grass greening up next to the ground could get more sunlight.  But the process has been slow… slower than normal.

My neighbor down the street (who is my inspiration and mentor) started weeks before me with heavy watering and fertilizing and his yard looks prime-time green.

My yard was still looking very much dormant and brown.  It was discouraging.  I wanted to just put fertilizer down, water it, and somehow have it instantly turn green.

That would be called paint.

Paint will change the color of something… instantly.  But it is just a facade.  It doesn’t produce or nourish real life or health.

Real life and growth takes time.  It requires developing roots.  My grass is gradually beginning to green up.  But it is a slow process… and like many other things in life, can sometimes be painfully slow.

Real growth, however, produces real fruit.

So rather than look for some quick fix that will make things look better in our lives, let’s be patient and nourish that which actually produces life.