Gardening is an exercise in trust. This is important for someone with control issues (like me) to undertake on a regular basis. Very little of what happens in my garden is up to me, and I learn a lot in the garden that I can use on the other side of the garden wall. In my own life, I have been drawn to many a sparkling thing or pretty flower along the road—each one promising me happiness, contentment, even wealth and prosperity. I have picked some of those flowers to plant: in my garden and my life. A few have taken root, grown, in spite of my best efforts to mess them up, into wonderful blessings that continue to enrich. Others were actually weeds with pretty blossoms that ended up choking out what was healthy, and I had to admit failure, tear them out, and move on.
This message is adapted from “Earth Wise” written by Catherine Pate in the January/February 2013 issue of Gather magazine.