Change

In the garden, like in many aspects of life, it is easy to forget how quickly things change.

In the spring we plant our gardens in great anticipation of the vegetables, fruits and beautiful flowers we might grow.  Once the seeds or transplants are in the ground we think to ourselves, “Hurry up and grow!” Perhaps, like me you go and visit your garden once or twice a day to see what, if any, changes have taken place while you were sleeping or at work.  I am always excited to see a new shoot or bloom.

As the plants grow, suddenly you may begin to remember how much effort you need to put in to maintaining the garden – the watering, the thinning, the weeding (except remember I like weeding - J), the dead-heading, getting rid of pests and so on.  Then you may think to yourself, “slow down, I need to catch up”.  Many things in life are like that.  Parents eagerly await the day their baby will crawl, get a first tooth and walk and the next thing you know they are teenagers and then adults and you wish you could have moments back.  We as humans always seem to be anticipating the next thing instead of enjoying what is.

Two years ago when I moved into my house I was impatient to get to work on the garden knowing how much time it would take to establish a mature perennial garden. 

I remember how I wanted my garden and my life to hurry up and evolve from where it was to what I hoped it would be.   With lots of hard work by me, the kids and friends we dug, hauled in topsoil and got things planted.  My backdoor neighbor handed many lovely perennial cuttings over the fence and we bought many more at a neighbourhood plant sale.  I happily nurtured it and watched it transform before Autumn came and then it was back to sitting and waiting for Spring to arrive again.  Patience is a virtue so they say.

My garden and my life are constantly changing and growing.  And, like my garden, my life needs weeding once in a while too.  I need to weed out the things that are not of value or the things that are dragging me down and taking my energy.  Like weeds these things can take control of your life and take up the space of the things that are important.  As I watch my garden grow I try to take lessons from it.  Learning how to be resilient and that I too can withstand a bout of bad weather and bloom again in the sun.  I will enjoy each bloom as it blossoms and eat as much of the fresh vegetables as I can knowing that those things will be gone again in a season and I will be busy trying to learn how to be patient once again.