Growing Roots...

I've spent the past 2 years of living in our 'new' hometown growing roots.  Well at least I thought I was growing roots.  In actuality I was watching the world happen around me while expecting the roots to just latch in and grow grow grow!
  God has been placing the word "faithful" in my heart over and again.  I am great at new and shiny, aren't we all? I am fantastic at starting with gusto and great intent it's the follow through that gets muddled.  The day after day that gets boring and monotonous and life clouded and schedule cluttered that is hard.  So I am working on being faithful to the long term.
  While I was praying about my roots growing, an analogy I've used repeatedly through our times of transition, God was telling me to be faithful to the process. So here I sit waiting to see growing roots.
But wait!
Before you have roots you have to have a seed. 
And it has to be planted. 
And tended to. 
A lot.
  Roots don't just happen spontaneously, they are a process.  I had been a military spouse for so long that I was used to the chia pet version of roots.  You moved to a new duty station (or somebody else joined you at the station) and almost immediately you were developing roots.  You had so much in common it was easy. Your spouses worked for the same company, you endured much of the same stresses, you had been to places they'd been stationed or vice versa, you had friends in common through the family that was the military.  It was easy and your roots felt so strong that you didn't realize that while they were strong they were not deep.  They sustained you through the time you shared the same space.  Some people were deeper and the connection lasted beyond the place you met/shared but not most. 
Fast forward to being out and trying to find these insta-roots.  I am sure they exist in all places but it wasn't easy for me. Everything was new for us, new job, new town, new neighborhood, new church.  Nothing with the fluidity of the military.   Friendly sure, but friends? Not so much.  It's been years and I keep waiting for it to happen. And then it was a moment of clarity and a fact thunked into my heart with such a weight that it felt like God had just whispered it into my being.

PLANT A SEED! 

What? Plant a seed? But I am here Lord, isn't that planting a seed? I show up.  I smile, I nod, I laugh.  Isn't that planting?  No?  Planting requires getting dirty, making an effort.  I don't know any farmer that gets to harvest a crop that they didn't first plant and tend to.  But HOW do I plant in a forest full of trees with roots already deep.  How? What if there isn't room? What if I don't fit? "What if" is the death of roots for me.  My what if's had me standing waiting for spontaneous root growth complete with history and depth and belonging.  For years.  Then I decided to step out.  I went to a meeting (recently ya'll so this is a during post not an after) and then the next morning I went to another meeting.  Oh wait, there are not 12 step meetings for growing roots but these are 2 different places that I am involved in and am making an effort to plant seeds.  We've made friends here, don't get me wrong, great friends that we are starting to build a history with but I am still banking on chia roots. Not anymore, I am putting my what if's away and getting my hands dirty instead.  I will work on planting seeds and wait as roots develop.  I will be faithful to the process. 

Dude, growing stuff is hard yo!