There are so many lessons to be learned from the ever changing, ever-growing garden. It is constantly reminding us of what we need to be doing in order to thrive. Read on for the 8 best things my garden has taught me about how to thrive.
1. The soil needs to be just right
There is a parable in the Bible about different kinds of soils and how seeds reacted differently when sewn. This parable is so applicable today, in many ways.
The soil is your heart, and the seeds are the lessons life throws at us. In good soil, these seeds will thrive, take root, and germinate. They will produce a harvest.
What is your heart like? Is it prepared to make the best of everything life flings your way? Will it turn that lemon into lemonade? Will it turn that curdled milk into cake? Or is it dry and callous, un-watered and lacking in nutrients? Is it uninspired? Does it grow stagnant and never grow or learn?
Tend to your soil. Make sure it is well nourished.
2. Plants need Cross-pollinators
Some trees need cross-pollination in order to produce fruit. They require trees of the same variety to be in the vicinity. Humans are like trees. For our character to thrive, we need our ‘people.’
But not just any person. The cross-pollinator is one or two other trees of the same type who are there, all the time, though good weather and bad, since day dot.
Our cross-pollinators are the same: the people who stick around, even when times get tough, but pull you through. Our cross-pollinators are there when we have no leaves, and when our branches are laden with heavy fruit. They are pruned at the same time, watered at the same time, weeded at the same time.
Pollinators ENSURE we produce fruit. That is what they are there for. Who are your cross-pollinators? Who do you cross-pollinate?
Edit: do not take this as a license to be cross.
3. Plants need to be pruned
Plants need to be pruned, to grow bigger and to produce more fruit. It seems counter-productive: cutting back in order to grow. It doesn’t seem logical. But it is true for plants and it is true for humans too.
We need our hard edges sanded off; our bad habits axed. We need to be able to cut off the old, so we can step into new mindsets, behaviours, and opportunities.
4. Some years, growth is slow, regardless of how you take care of it
It can be so frustrating to pour money and time and research into your garden, only to produce mediocre results. This is so true for our lives as well. We spend years and incur loans to get an education, only to get a run-of-the-mill job. Or, we don’t get the promotion we want, despite working so hard for it. Sometimes you DON’T get out what you put in.
It is so tough to not see results, especially when you have worked so doggedly to try and make it happen. But what if you define success as obtaining new habits and levels of perseverance through the hard work? Hard work has its own reward, as they say.
A better you is nothing to sniff at, even if you don’t get the recognition or salary you truly deserve.
5. Some years there is no fruit, and that’s ok
OK, it is tear-jerking to go through the anticipation of harvest-time, only to see no fruit. To not be able to make the preserves or dishes you were planning to make, to have to spend money on fruit from the supermarket, that you were planning to save. It’s frustrating!
But even though it is a major set-back, it’s ok. The plant is not dead. It’s just …having a sabbatical.
And you know what? It’s ok to not have anything to show for the season. You are not a failure. Never underestimate the value you bring by just being there, waving your pretty branches and letting your leaves flutter in the breeze. You are enough.
6. Gardens Need regular weeding
It is a pain, but gardens need to be weeded, regularly, otherwise the life-sucking weeds will choke out the pretty and fruit-bearing plants.
It is the same with us. Are there weeds in your life that are sucking the life out of you, which need to be uprooted? Maybe you are hooked on a really good, but dark, TV series that you can’t stop thinking about. Maybe you have the tendency to become obsessive about food (hand up here). Or maybe you suffer from extremely low confidence, which prevents you from doing even the little things.
Weeds aren’t just in our minds or behaviours. Maybe there are weedy people in your life that encourage you to make soul-destroying decisions. Or maybe you are a weed to someone else.
Remember, weeds infiltrate regularly. There is never a time where a weed does not try to poke its audacious little head through the soil. So, we need to routinely check for weeds in our life and ruthlessly pull them out.
Just saying.
7. Plants do better with certain companion plants
Tomatoes and Basil. Carrots and Leeks. Companion planting is when plants are grouped together in a mutually beneficial way. They drive away each other’s pests. They help to optimise the soil.
We, too, perform better amid certain companion plants. You will know what type of person is your companion plant. No man is an island, and if he is, then he is not performing at his optimal best.
Are your people your “companion plants?” Is it a community in which you are the best version of yourself, which you thrive within and to which you also contribute value?
8. Your garden needs both sunshine and rain to thrive
And so do we. We need the sunshiney times of joy, laughter, success and abundance to nourish us and keep our morale up, because without morale, we would not press forward to bigger things. We need sunshiney times to remind us of what we are capable of, to build confidence and ambition.
But we also need the rain. We need the failures, the disappointments, the times of want and lack, to ground us, to learn humility and discernment. Sometimes, the rain can teach us to be thankful, and to appreciate the sunshiney times more when they do come. The rain also teaches us what not to do, and builds us up for greater success.
There are so many more lessons to be learned from the garden about how to thrive. Are there any that you can think of? Please share in the comments, below.
