Spring cleaning

Spring is that time of year- where we do our deep cleans, our re-starts, our resolutions (or re-resolutions). There's just something about the nature of the season that literally is asking us to begin again; when everything has been given, what feels like, a second chance at life, after a long winter's dormancy.
For me, I often mark this change of season with the re-potting of plants. Most times, it goes off pretty easily- gently edging the soil away from the pot and sliding the tender root ball out, overly careful not to let too much loose soil drop away for fear of over-exposing the plant's naked, tender roots; and then replanting in another, slightly bigger pot that is already eagerly awaiting its new tenant.
But then, there are some plants. Some plants that have not left their pots for as long as I've had them (like they could've even if they wanted to). These tend to be the ones that are already a little bigger, pretty well set into the pots that hold them. I always think about re-potting them. But then I rethink it. What if the transfer is too much for them? They've grown so comfy and accustomed to the pot that they're in now. What if moving them to a bigger pot, gulp, kills them?! They're doing so well now. Neatly contained. Comfortable. They're still growing, right? I mean, their roots might be all jammed up against the inside of the pot, practically strangling itself, but that's ok, right? Better to stay bound up, safe, and comfortable than to die, right??
Because often, at least so we think, it's either of these two choices. Stay safe and comfortable or die otherwise. For humans or plants. We make that choice to 'stay in our pot', be it a secure job that we've done for years, a relationship that suits us just fine, or a way of being that has gotten us through life this far. And what's wrong with that? We've survived and sure, we'll continue to survive, be it slightly root-bound and stuck. Or, we could move out of our current pots and DIE!
And this, generally speaking, is how we see it. For most of us, when we survey the options of 'getting a slightly bigger pot', (too much with this metaphor?) we most always will see either safety or certain death. Because for the mind, that is literally what it sees. It seeks only for our survival. Steady job = steady income = food on the table = survival. Steady partner = steady interaction and socialization = survival. Steady belief system = steady mind state = survival. Any threat to the formula and mind freaks out; it sends out the bells and whistles to you in the form of panic attacks, anxiety, distress, and doubt to assure that you will commit to safety as your #1 priority. And once you do, mind can calm down again- it has ensured your survival and now it can crack open a beer, unbutton its pants, and relax. And so, at almost any and every opportunity, mind will choose safety. Because that's what it does; that's what it's been trained to do (in every previous choice made by you or another for you) and what it will continue to do until you die. To do something other than what is the safest option, aka something 'new', or 'unknown' or 'different' is extremely uncomfortable for the mind. 'New' or 'unknown' or 'different' is a threat to your safety and survival and, therefore, given the choice, mind will choose safety and stability, be it the same pot, the same job, the same relationship, the same way of being. Your mind doesn't care that perhaps you've outgrown your pot, that you feel stifled or stagnant. Its job is to keep you safe and alive, much like the way I refuse to repot those bigger plants. Sure, they could become more beautiful, larger, more luscious, thriving plants, but they could also DIE!
Heart, however, doesn't play it safe. Heart is the unbounded soil, free of any pot, calling you to not just stick your roots into it, but to bury your whole self so deeply within it, that no panic or anxiety, distress or doubt could enter. It knows ultimately that that is where you belong, not stifled or stagnant, but residing freely within the ground of your own being, into the rich soil that brought you to life. Heart doesn't care if you feel 'ready' or 'safe' or 'certain'. Its job is to ensure you live, not just survive, and live to the highest height it can possibly get you to grow; to make you realize that while you might feel 'comfortable' exactly where and how you are, you are actually so much more. It's the understanding that that little fern you have in your apartment is actually that same giant plant that grows in the Amazon.
Unfortunately for that little fern, it doesn't have a choice of whether it can leave its little pot or not, but we do. We can choose to stay safe, steady, and comfortable (and of course, sometimes that is the wiser choice) but we can also choose, when life calls us to, to break through our boundedness and grow- to be the beautiful, larger, luscious, thriving beings we truly are.