This week,
I was thumbing through some of my garden books when I was pulled into a story
about the virtues of the gardener who tends to the cyclical unpredictability of
the land, season after season.
Yes. A garden
instills humility in us -- a deep respect of something greater than ourselves.
We learn about the gift of nurturing, tending and caring for others – from the
heart.
The author
went on to describe the gardener’s deep inner strength and their wisdom to not
only grow a successful and healthy garden but to choose to live a life that is able
to find joy in all things.
Life, like
the garden, is very unpredictable—yet, we gardeners dig, prune, clean and repeat.
We welcome in the joy of the surprises created
in the garden—not by us, but by something greater than us. Hope and inner strength translate beyond the
garden.
One of my
favorite lines goes something like this:
I thought by being diligent and
dedicated to my work, I was growing my garden, yet I learned that actually my
garden was and still is growing me.
I am sure
I am not the first person to discover that gardening is a wise window into the
mystery of life. And, like many who have come to this conclusion in their
higher-learning institute of gardening, we discover how to be joyful through
all of the seasons of life.
Plan, celebrate, reflect -- February
is full of surprises!
