I have a confession to make.
In my off time, I talk a good talk about enjoying the AG lifestyle.
But I’m a terrible gardener.
This past season was a prime example of that. In the late spring, like many covid lock-ins, I made a commitment to myself that I would do something productive with my time at home. Since we live on a tiny little slice of paradise, I gave in to my wife’s request of putting together a better sized garden plot than my previous tomato garden. And because I figured I had enough time on my hands, I decided that if I was going to give her a garden, I was going to give her one heck of a vegetable garden.
So off I went to rent a sod cutter, to borrow a garden tiller and then scrounged up what was left of the seeds that most folks had gleaned over during the bulk of the planting season.
Planting seeds is a (somewhat) enjoyable experience for me. I enjoy the planning, the digging and putting those tiny little orbs into the ground. And I think the part I like the most is dreaming and imagining the end result come late August, September and October. I love pulling fresh tomatoes off the vine and handing them to my children to snack on in the middle of the afternoon. There’s a lot of gardening that is really enjoyable.
It’s the waiting part of gardening that I hate the most.
The worst part of gardening for me has to be the part after the seed is planted and waiting for those little numbskulls to crack their way out of the earth. I will give them their credit… so much is happening under the earth. The seed is sprouting, the roots are setting in and the little leaves are starting to develop. When they are truly ready, they really will push through the soil and show the world their beautiful little flowers.
But why does it have to take so long?
Of course, there is absolutely nothing I can really do to speed up the process. There are many things that we can do to aid in the development and give them the best start possible (like fertilizers and constant weeding) but when it all boils down, the primal part of the gardening game is putting that little seed into the ground and then doing whatever we can to help it get there. To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t much else we can do to really speed up the process…
I suppose from a philosophical level, that’s a wonderful perspective. All we need to do is observe the beauty of nature at work and just enjoy the process.
But from a practical level… does it really need to take so long?
Every year, the answer comes back to me. Yes, it does take that long and if we are willing to do everything out our power to aid the little plant in its development, it will reward you with a tasty yield at the end of the day. Eventually, after weeks and months of weeding the garden, chasing away the chickens from eating the flowers and endless evenings of watering the ground, my little girls run out to the garden and collect a bowl of delicious veggies. And that in and of itself is worth every part of the process.
There really are no shortcuts to any of it.
True life change is a lot like gardening. The ideas, hopes and dreams of bettering our lives are a lot like the seeds that we plant. And I can’t tell you how many times as a therapist I sit with people who are in so much pain, feeling that they are just spinning their wheels, going nowhere… all the while completely unaware that there is so much happening underneath the surface.
We really can’t see the growth happening. But it is happening at a remarkable speed—just not in the way we quantify it.
And along the journey, I get to see the small sprouts of hope that come up from the soil of their lives. Bit by bit, little flowers begin to bloom. And then, what seems like all of a sudden, things begin to click, events start to fall into place and before I know it, my clients are saying goodbye to me because they just don’t need a therapist anymore. It really is a beautiful process—one that can’t be rushed. But in time, more often than not, we get to the end of it with the joy and satisfaction after all the hard work finally paying off.
If you are anything like me, you might be a terrible gardener.
And that’s ok. Just go plant some seeds. And then wait. Impatiently if you must.
And see what just might happen if you’re willing to stick with it till harvest time.
Until Next Time,
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