As we all set intentions and goals for ourselves in 2025, I’d love to share a story with you.
I’ve moved almost every year around August for the past 12 years. Which means that usually when I’ve planted a garden, I’ve often had to move before many of my plants were ready to harvest. I once left a garden with hundreds of tomatoes, all green, hoping someone else would enjoy them. Sometimes I’d grow in containers that could move with me, but was not always moving to a place with the same light conditions.
But this year I stayed put. And around September I realized that I had wayyy too many tomatoes and cucumbers. And I didn’t know what to do with them!
I stacked my garden, growing a lot in a very small space. Never even crossed my mind how I would have to figure out a plan to use all of these veggies. (Or that maybe 8 tomato plants for 2 people was a few too many.) Then I got so busy that I didn’t prioritize the time to cook and preserve what I’d grown to enjoy the fruits of my labor and enable them to last me longer. I realized:
We ask for abundance, but aren’t used to holding it.
There’s a learning curve because it’s different than what we’re used to. I’d become accustomed to just buying the vegetables I wanted, when I wanted, grown elsewhere and flown here, trucked from place to place until the nutrient content is practically zero because it’s taken weeks to get to my plate. But here I was with my own limited-time only grocery store, and I didn’t know what to do with all the food. I ate some, made BLTs and salads and ate cucumbers with just a pinch of pink salt, or with hummus and fresh herbs and a slice of tomato. And still 5 pounds of would-be pickles sat molding in my refrigerator because I didn’t take the time to slice and pickle the cucumbers I grew. I took my effort and gifts of the Earth, and squandered them.
Did I share some of my harvest? Yes. But how much better would it have been to use all of what I grew and can it, or pickle it, or turn it into sauce, to keep using it and keep gifting it?
When we know how to care for what we ask for, we can turn a few loaves of bread into hundreds, thousands, more.
It’s a miracle.
We ask for abundance, but aren’t used to caring for it.
We must devote ourselves to caring for our desires, or the flame can dwindle. We can coax a flame to grow using our breath, and we can snuff it out just the same. Choose wisely.
There’s a reason the phrase “This is why we/you/I/they can’t have nice things” exists. Because when we ask for more, it requires more of us. And sometimes we’re ready to meet that challenge, sometimes we’re not.
This is why it’s crucial to spend time planning for, thinking about, and imagining the scenarios we want to happen.
A manifestation program that I do has a meditation called “Do you have space” in their Love workshop. Before I started dating my partner, I did that several times. It would walk you through your life currently and ask if you have space for the love you’re calling in. For months, my answer was no. I didn’t have time, energy, or the emotional bandwidth to share with another person.
But one day that changed and I realized I felt a sense of internal space for a partner. Not even 3 weeks later we started dating. I say that to impart a lesson to you:
If you want something you haven’t had before, you must create space for it and prepare yourself to care for and hold abundance.
It’ll be easier to care for some things than others. Easier to allow them to expand, to hold them while they mutate, to bring ideas to fruition.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try new things.
Plant your garden (literally or metaphorically) with an intention, and prioritize appreciating and using that abundance to the best of your ability.
As we set our intentions for this new year, keep that in mind. Dream about what you want and call it in, manifest it, pray for it, whatever floats your boat. But spend time really imagining yourself as the person who can hold that and care for it, and plan for everything you need to do to hold onto it as well.
lindsey beatrice
all image credit to Kayla Gray
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