It would appear that I’ve missed a few weeks around here! I do have a good excuse: I’ve been trying hard to bloom where I’m planted, and that takes time and effort. But here I am, back now, to tell you how blooming where I’m planted is going and how it got started in the first place.
See, when I moved in with my current roommate, it was a temporary thing. She planned on buying a house and I had no idea what my plan was, so I moved my things in “for a few months” to see where I ended up. That was in…2019? Man, time flies when the world seems to be falling apart.
My point is that my mindset around this housing situation was, “It’s temporary.” Consequently, I didn’t do a ton of redecorating, I did little to no deep cleaning or house upkeep, and I certainly didn’t touch the outside of the house. I was renting by the month, why would I deal with landscaping or house repairs? I wouldn’t. And I didn’t. The basement leaks, the ceilings are peeling, the grass is mostly weeds, and the wildlife has basically taken over the backyard, and I did nothing.
(Okay, I did a couple of things when my frustration level got high – rearranged the kitchen cabinets so I didn’t lose my mind every morning, repainted my bedroom because I could literally feel the color of the walls – somehow both grey and tan simultaneously – watching me while I slept…so on and so forth. I did what I needed to survive. Nothing more.)
Until about three weeks ago, when I suddenly just could not handle it anymore. I don’t know what happened exactly (the famous Enneagram 9 “door slam” comes to mind, but that’s another post) but I simply could no longer exist in the gross neglect. I felt like I’d spent my last three and a half years in an old frat house, and I was done with that life. And the phrase that came to mind was our topic today: it’s time to bloom where I’m planted.
With very little thought, I started attacking the front yard with a vengeance. Weeds, squirrels, giant tree roots – nothing could stop me. In fact, I may have gone just a teensy bit overboard (at least six different strangers walked by and said some variation of, “That’s a big project!”) but I was determined. I want to be happy wherever I am, and if that means putting hard work into a temporary situation, then so be it. Over the last three weeks, my vengeance against the frat house has cooled some, but I’m still trying to keep the mindset – even if I’m only in this house another month, why not enjoy the month?
What about you? How do you work to bloom where you’re planted? Send me your tips and tricks!
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