// March 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // Life (and the living of it), Nature
I’ve become something of an avid (albeit lazy) gardener.
My style of gardening looks a little like this: I plant something, and water it regularly (watering is my favourite part of gardening) and then I watch. None of that weeding, de-bugging nonsense. Nature has to have a space to play. But I watch, and wait, and sure enough I’m presented with a miracle in some form… Oh, some of my plants are small and uninspired, but every so often I’ll resurrect something from near-death, or discover some little flowering treasure that I didn’t plant, or see seeds grow from nothingness into life.
And I think there’s a lesson for us here. Even when something looks like it’s dead (brown leaves, drooping, no vitality) it can come back to life. It just needs some care, regular watering and lots of sunshine. Sometimes in life parts of us feel dead (our creativity / spontaneity / ability to love) but all they need are some attention, some focussed care.
Also, have you noticed how slowly things grow in nature? You can tell they’re growing because in the space of a week there’s a visible difference, but to look at it every morning is to think it’s paused in its tracks. Similarly, sometimes we feel like we’re not getting anywhere, no matter how much attention we’ve poured into a certain segment of our lives. But maybe the growth is just incremental, and needs some time to flourish and become visible.
So take some time, this weekend, to do a little soul gardening. Some time out, some watering, soaking up a bit of sunshine. Tend yourself. You might be surprised at the miraculous results.
