Sprouting, and lessons learned

Sprouts are delicious. I have always been a lover of them. Mung beans sprouts on top of soup or salad, alfalfa sprouts in your sandwich, can't get enough! For Christmas, my husband, Matt, gave me some new varieties I had not tried sprouting before, lentils and garbanzo beans, yum! We have also started sprouting wheatgrass for our juices. It's such a fun activity, I love coming home  from work and checking on my little "garden." The thing about sprouts is, you have to do a lot of waiting. Sprouts take patience. Now, compared to other plants, sprouts are ready to eat very quickly. With most varieties, from the time of soaking to consumption only takes about a week, but the thing is, aside from watering them, and making sure they are properly draining, all you are doing is waiting.
There is a lesson to learn from all this. Sometimes, we treat life like sprouts. We are so worried about the end result, where we see ourselves in ten years, what we want to do once we get (insert goal here), how we will feel once we lose 10, 20, 30+ pounds. We believe happiness is a destination, and we sit around waiting for whatever it is that will take us to it (a person, a promotion, etc.). The thing is, the only thing keeping us from being happy at this moment is us. Happiness is not the cause of something, happiness is a choice, a state of being. At this moment, as I write at my desk in a cramped apartment, I could easily say, "Once we have a house, and an office, and all the storage we need, once I have the yard and beautiful garden I want, then..." Instead, I choose happiness today, at this very moment. I am happy because I have a roof over my head. I am happy because I have a loving husband to share my cramped living quarters with. I am happy because I have a lovely little kitchen garden working hard at sprouting away, right at this very moment. But even without any of these "things," I can choose happiness. I can find something positive and focus on it. I do not have to wait to sprout and become my full potential before I get to be happy. I think choosing happiness is part of what grows us, what pushes us to who we are supposed to be, and where we are trying to get to. It's not a de-motivator, it is the ultimate motivator! And can we all agree this world needs more happy? The only thing keeping us from being happy today is us.
Well, I'm off to water some wheatgrass.

Thanks for reading,

Wendy