Meaningful Change Takes Longer Than We Want
About a year ago, my partner and I decided to transition our small patch of front yard into a pollinator garden.
We pulled all the weeds, covered everything with cardboard for six months, added about 2,000 pounds of soil (sidenote: soil does not go as far as I thought!), and then sprinkled out a mixture of native wildflower seeds.
And we began to hope, knowing it would be months before any sign of impact would become visible.
But lo and behold, the pollinator garden is in fact becoming:
Click for a short video I posted on Instagram.
Here in its first season, it’s a humorous and beautiful blend of blooming flowers, happy bees, dormant seeds, and…well, still lots of dirt.
Every time I walk by, I glance around for signs of explosive growth – but that’s rarely what I find.
Instead, this half-garden-half-dirt plot of earth reminds me that meaningful change doesn’t always arrive on the timeline I want – or in the exact shape I had envisioned.
That change often takes time to germinate, far beneath the surface of my awareness. That, regardless of my sense of urgency, change is far too complex for my attempts at control.
And it reminds me:
The world doesn’t need my urgency; it needs my presence, my attention, and my care.
How might you be more present to the changes quietly unfolding in your life right now? What is already growing in your communities you might give your attention to? What is being forgotten that you might offer a bit more love and care?
Change is always happening, even when we can’t yet see it.
Our task isn’t to rush it along or force it into being. It’s to notice what’s growing, name what might be possible, and offer what we can.
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