Let me share a personal story with you that can help us to look forward…

This spring a friend gave me the starting of a very spindly pepper plant. As a matter of fact, we had both discussed whether I’d even try to revive the plant.

I’d never grown a pepper plant before. So like everyone else, I Googled how to grow it and how to care for it! Unfortunately, what I read mostly seemed to be that people had ‘tried’ growing a pepper plant and failed. Luckily for me, they were quick to point out how and why they felt they had failed.

So here I had a choice. I could assume, “Well, people can’t grow them so neither can I.” OR I could think, “Let me learn from what they assumed were their mistakes.” It’s ALL a matter of mind! So I took it upon myself as a challenge – what was the worse that could happen?

Being an Aquarian, of course, I said, “Well, I WILL do it differently.” (Aquarians hate rules!!! lol) So I set up a regime:

1. First, the spindly pepper plant and I had a little talk. While doing Reiki on the plant, I told it, “I will do MY very best to make you the bestest pepper plant you could ever be. I will make you one of my top priorities. I will pay attention to your needs. I will try and communicate with you as best as I can.” BUT I also needed the pepper plant to pull its weight as well! (It looked pretty sickly.)
2. I did research. Did it like a lot of sun or not much sun? My checking showed it likes morning and early afternoon sun – but NO evening sun! So I found the perfect place in the garden! I believe that IF we want success in whatever we are doing, it has to have the best opportunity possible. I fully believe that IF you are going to do anything, then do it 110% AND I also believe that we ALL can do anything IF we put our minds to making it happen.
3. I set up a ‘feeding’ routine. I fed Miracle Grow in its water every New Moon and every Full Moon. (This was easy because you should feed your plants every 2 weeks which is exactly that time frame.) PLUS it would REMIND me of when to feed the little pepper plant because New and Full Moons are easy dates to remember.
4. As I would water it, I’d ‘talk’ to it. (If you question the idea of talking to your plants, check out Kirlian Photography – it will prove that point.) This is also the concept of where we come into Phantom Limb… but I stray from the topic here.

End of the story, I have AMAZING peppers from that plant. Each pepper is 9 inches long – YEP! I’ve harvested 4 peppers from that plant with another 6 to harvest. And they taste like they have a slightly smoky paprika taste. DE-licious!!

So this morning as I was sitting at the breakfast table, I thought about this story and was so very happy with my choice at the beginning. It was a HUGE success!!! Even if the story had a different outcome, I would have known that ‘I’ had done the best that I could do!

Now the question becomes, how can I do even better next year?

I’m sure you realize this story is not JUST about me growing peppers. It’s about the choices ALL of us make at the very beginning. AND to always question, “How can I improve?”

The story proves that IF I had gone by someone else’s example, it’s likely I wouldn’t have done it at all. So often in our society, we measure ourselves against someone else’s success – which is so very wrong. That is like comparing apples to oranges. Everybody in life has a choice but it is THEIR choice. It all comes down to the choice of your mind!