How Does Your Garden Grow?

Today I read this:

“A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild, but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will bring forth.” –James Allen

This sort of hit me over the head: the metaphor was used throughout to convince one to cultivate your garden as this is more desireable .  While I understood what he was trying to put forth, my love for indigenous plant life, herbalism, wild gardens and this quote:

“A weed is a plant whose virtues are yet to be discovered”

all coalesced in that moment to bring me to a greater awareness of the nature of life: all life lived is valuable.  Cultivated or wild, all life is worthy of appreciation.

Just as the gardener enjoys the beautiful display  his direct intention and great attention can brought forth,

so too does the naturalist enjoy the wild sprays of mother nature whose vulnerability to the droughts and storms strengthens and potentiates them.

There it is again: the balance of the masculine and the feminine.  The action oriented creator vs. the observing yielder.   Power coming from two poles:

direct power over our lives in which we change what we don’t want,

and the power to accept anything life gives us and therefore the power to thrive in all situations.

It seems I play the two gardeners in my parenting, too. At times I am the attentive gardener, watering daily and and strengthening the soil so my plants can grow big and beautiful, but dependent on my care .

At other times there is a pull to allow my children a bit of exposure to the elements so they may find their hardiness, strengthen themselves to thrive in whatever is brought their way.

And I watch this balance played out all around me depending on the culture and values of the home in which the child is reared. 

And for myself, I find in my life it is different at different times.  Sometimes I just want to watch life unfold before me, feel the magic of what nature puts before me.

 

I find it empowering to watch my reaction and then to watch it change as I find the courage to accept what has been shown to me.  I learn so much about myself during these times of observation.

And then there are other times when I want to exert my power through action, creating a life of my own intention.  If I don’t like something, I will change it.  If I like something, I will embolden it.  I am the painter. 

But how wonderful this feels right now to feel the resonance of this truth: nothing is ever wasted.  No time in life is a waste. No life is a waste.  The journey provides its bounty whether we are the observer or the creator.  We can rest easy knowing our garden

“which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild…will bring forth”