The Right Soil

These are what my Simpler Place in Time herbs looked like June 3rd.  I put them in my window garden and they lanquished, then I put them outside in the pots and they both nearly died.  When my sage and mint died this summer, I replaced them with these two pots that barely contained a wisp of a plant. And this is what they look like only a few weeks later...

The purple basil is now the tallest plant in my garden.  The chocolate mint is spreading all over the box.  If you look carefully here- you'll see two kinds of mint- the chocolate mint has darker green leaves with less texture- over on the right side of the water reservoir is the spearmint saying hello.

Which got me to thinking- we all need the right kind of soil and the right kind of conditions to grow.  I have been having so much trouble with the Discipline of Self-Esteem lately- when I follow it, I thrive, but I don't want to follow it- so maybe I need new soil?

And here's my Dr. Who analogy- I'm sure you are just dying for this one... Warning- Spoilers- skip to the next paragraph if you haven't seen it and want to. 
Spoilers here:
Saturday, we saw the Asylum of the Daleks.  It started out with Amy in a photo shoot.  Although it was a fabulous shot, Amy was just not Amy- and then you see Amy getting a divorce and you know that Amy is really not being Amy. Luckily the Daleks capture Amy, Rory, and the Doctor and bring them back together for an adventure- because even the Daleks know that the Doctor requires companions.  And Amy really requires the Doctor.  Amy was raised near a crack in time- she doesn't really live in her own time- she really belongs to all times and places- the whole universe pouring into her being- so on the planet in her new adventure- she realizes that it is here that she is really alive- even though she is in great danger of becoming a Dalek herself.  In sharp contrast is Oswin Oswald, a woman trapped in a Dalek body, but fantastically alive and amazingly living the Discipline of Self-Esteem.  She left Earth to go traveling in space- that she felt that was what she was meant to do- and in her first voyage- she crashed on the Dalek asylum planet and got changed into a Dalek.  But here comes the Doctor- he needs to be able to start over with the Daleks- and here she is tapped into the Dalek mind and being able to open the shields allowing the Daleks to destroy the planet and herself- and she is able to destroy all memory of the Doctor from the Dalek mind- a mind that for all of history has been concentrated on doing nothing except destroy the Doctor.  Fantastic- nothing kept her from being herself.  What an amazing journey!

Spoilers over:
So if you are in the right soil, you will grow and become the person that God meant you to be.  Sometimes the right soil can be pretty horrific- but if your soul can grow and become- it is the right soil.  But if you are in the wrong soil- even soil that looks perfect- even with all the money and all the power and all the fame in the world- but in soil where you simply don't want to live the Discipline of Self-Esteem, then you are in the wrong soil.  Luckily, as human beings, we can change our worlds and make them what we want them to become- even sometimes in our imaginations.  When I was a child, I needed to live that way- it was the only way to become an adult without letting my soul die- just like Oswin in her world- but now I'm an adult and I've been living in a cocoon long enough- just have to find the place to grow- and it is always a journey of discovery.