Landscaping Your Life

My father gifted me with a large bible. We placed it in a display box and opened it to Psalm One. It sits proudly on a shelf in my office. Psalm One is a classic biblical passage describing two completely different paths of life. It is a poetic narrative that contrasts between the man who chooses the path of God’s instructions versus the path of wicked men. I memorized it as a child and meditate on it even to this day.

It’s not simply a “Thou Shalt Not” text. It is a life-giving narrative. Consider some of its phrases describing the one who stays on the right path:

Happy or blessed is the man…
His delight is in the Lord’s instruction…
He meditates on it day and night…
He is like a tree planted by streams of water…

Bears its fruit in season
Whose leaf does not whither
Whatever he does prospers.

When I read it, I sometimes get this urge to landscape or at least go outside and enjoy nature. The imagery is a trail, trees, and streams. It’s outdoors. This powerful psalm talks about a path where the landscape is beautiful. Where one goes to be strengthened.

Love for Landscaping

I’ve always enjoyed landscaping. Especially the designing part. In order to create a sustaining landscape, one needs to consider the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. This information tells you what type of vegetation will survive and thrive in your area. I have lived in southern California. In the mountains, near the ocean, and the inland areas. I have lived in the Denver area and also the hill country of Texas. Each of these has similar yet contrasting characteristics. Thinking about where you are has a way of informing how you plant and design your life.

I like to mix hardscape (stone) and natural ground cover with my chosen plant selections. Mulch is a key ground cover for planting beds. Think about mulch for a minute. Where does it come from? It comes from nature. Tree limbs are shredded into small pieces that are then laid over the soil.

What’s the purpose of mulch? It warms the soil in the winter and cools it in the summer. Mulch helps reduce erosion and provides nutrients. It is a weed barrier. Fresh applications make the planting bed attractive to the eye while sometimes providing a pleasant aroma.

Personal Growth through Intentional Choices

When we fill our lives with the right stuff, we are able to spread it over all the areas of our lives like mulch covers a flower bed. Regular consumption of all things healthy provides the substance we need to reduce erosion in our thinking and weeds in our relationships and behaviors. Taking in the right elements allows us to provide nutrients to others, regulate the temperature of environments, and provide attractive spaces for others to live.

Leaders are designers and landscapers. Their raw materials come from within. What is in you has come from what was once outside of you. So choose carefully what you consume. Guard your heart and your life for from it comes the fountains of life.

Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life –
Proverbs 4:23

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