The Stinkiest Manure Can Build The Strongest Plants

A year ago I moved in to a garden district of Philadelphia called Chestnut Hill that is just bustling with every kind of tree, bush, plant and flower. More than at any other time of my life I have been intimately witnessing how vegetation behaves throughout the 4 seasons of the year. This spring, while observing the generous use (and peculiar odor) of manure all around my residence, it occurred to me that this awful decomposition of nature is also one of the building blocks of the strongest and most healthy plant life.

Well, as in nature so in life because the immediate next thought for me was that in my life the strongest and healthiest aspects (plants) of my character have been born of the stinkiest, most difficult and unpleasant situations and people (manure). I did not wish for this manure in my life but it has had a fertilizing effect nonetheless, and in retrospect I am thankful for it. This retrospective has caused me to be more tolerant and even grateful for the present fresh manure in my life, which by the way is laid at my root in all seasons of the year, not just the Spring. I take this attitude because I know that with the right combination of other elements, i.e., patience, persistence, lovingkindness, etc., this manure will further strengthen the plants of my character.

Take a different look at the manure in your life today and see it as "character fertilizer", not only as the s*#t it also is.