Years ago, after making some homemade soup, I placed the root 
bottoms of the three organic leeks into some filtered water, changed it 
daily, and watched them begin to slowly regrow. Two days later, they finally had enough growth from the centers, away from the residual 
outer layers, those outer layers had begun withering away. (This was my 
first time doing this process, regrowing leeks from cut roots.) I tracked the responses of each plant when I peeled various levels of the 
wilted parts away from the new growth centers. For one leek, I didn’t 
remove any of the wilted outer parts. The second, I removed a few of the 
outer wilted “sheaths,” while for the third leek, I removed them all, 
except the very last layer up against the new growth centers. Two days 
later, The bottom of the leeks had growth spurts of one inch, each! What 
was surprising, was the differences in the level of growth from the top! Up 
to two inches in variances! How exciting! (Yes, I know I’m a bit of a 
gardening/science nerd; and sometimes the littlest discoveries excite me the most! Lol. I digress.) I immediately peeled the remaining wilted parts of the rest of the leeks… as… “My work here was done!” 

In experiencing so many changes, revelations, opportunities for new growth throughout Covid chaos or life in general… how many of us have chosen to remain in the wilted, perceived protectedness, and comfort of those cocoons of old habits or cycles? Lots of people kept saying, early on during the lockdowns, “I want things to return to normal.” I think we’ve progressed past the point of knowing; and are acknowledging what was our “normal” is not going to return. But, that doesn’t have to be a bad or negative thing. 

Perhaps, like the leeks in my experiment, we could begin to see, 
acknowledge, and slowly peel back the layers of our own wilted pieces… 
pieces of our thought processes, our experiences, and our feelings. 
Perhaps, we could open to tossing aside those pieces no longer serving our lives; because they’re effectively restricting us from the lives we want to 
create and live into BEing. If we want to bring a healthy habit into our 
lives, we must clear the space for it to enter and remain or “become rooted 
within us.” If the thought of tossing out all of the wilted pieces at once 
is too overwhelming, the aforementioned leek experiment showed us peeling back a few layers of the wilted pieces at a time can help us at the root level… until we feel our base is strong enough to tear out of the wilted remainder to soar towards the light, warmth, and radiance of the 
sun, moon, and reach for the stars in our own time. But, don’t expect the 
(leeks) people, places, and things around you to remain in that same growth pattern to end up in the same pot of soup, salad, or even the same kitchen… as you do.

Sometimes we don’t see the damage to our roots or the foundational core of our being until we’ve fallen or become visibly “cut down.”

It’s up to each of us to decide to lay where we’ve fallen to rot and decay away from whom we know we are Divinely, or to get up and walk into the space we know is ours to hold in the world... for ourselves and for one another. 

Don't be another ”Dead Man Walking” as sung by: Jeremy Camp. 

How many of us have spent much of our lives leaning or going out of the way we knew we were meant to go in our lives... to please or “go along with” what others told us we should; or, to be the consolation for others? If we do it for too long, we forget how to stand on our own; or to become all we were perhaps meant to be. All too soon, we realize the things that anchored our souls in our youth have been so uprooted, we risk toppling over if we don’t reconnect with the soul’s anchors to refuel. 

Are you ready to exclaim ”Not Today” by: Hillsong United? 

At first glance, some things may not seem so detrimental.  Take the first picture, which merely looks as if the smaller tree is providing some minor support for the larger tree. 

Upon closer inspection of the second picture from a different angle, we see the larger tree’s need was so much greater than the other tree had resources to provide, in keeping it aloft. 

Just as we humans tend to want to “rescue” fellow humans, despite knowing we lack the strength or capabilities at times by giving from wells not refilled enough or vast enough to draw from for the other’s needs... we can permit the uprooting of our inner peace and souls. 

It’s okay to say “No.”  It’s okay to make self-care a priority.  No, it is ESSENTIAL to make and take time for self-care. 

It’s better for everyone when we stop avoiding that “Little Voice Inside,” as Jaci Velasquez, sings so eloquently.