Last year I participated in a 5 day challenge on Facebook, aimed at simplifying my "Mom Life". It was a lot of mindset work and included small, actionable daily assignments. I enjoyed the daily lives with the woman running the challenge. I actually enjoyed the content so much last year that I signed up again this year. We're supposed to be going over many of the same points as last year, but the group of women is different so I figured the new and different perspectives will give me even deeper insights. Today was day one, but it wasn't the message about how I get to decide what kind of a life I want to create that keeps rolling around in my head and heart.
It was a sentence that the teacher flubbed.
She was trying to say she wanted other women who are struggling in their motherhood to get the message that it can be easier. She wanted hope to spread like wild fire. An admirable sentiment, to be sure. But what she said first was wild flower. I had an immediate visual of a field positively overrun with a riot of purples and yellows and whites. It is full to overflowing with life, vibrant and thriving.
Wildfire is uncontrolled and dangerous. It chars, and burns, and destroys. Sure, it moves fast, but it also consumes everything in it's path. Wildfire leaves behind destruction, devastation, and often heartbreak and death. That is not what I think of when I think about hope. I think the picture of hope as wild flowers fits better. Real hope has roots deep in the soil of our faith, watered by grace. It may be battered and bruised by the storms we face, but will find a way to keep growing. It spreads, not by consuming what's around it, but by sharing itself, as seeds ready for new ground. Not all hope is pretty to look at, all violets and daisies. Sometimes it is thistles and burrs. But it all plays a vital role in the ecosystem of Faith.
This is not a deep theological revelation. As an analogy, it may not resonate with you. It is simple and maybe even a little silly, but this image changes things for me. I want to bring people something full of life, something to encourage them and hold them up when they don't feel they can keep going.
I want to spread hope like wild flowers.
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