Tending the Gardens of Our Lives

Lessons about life transferred from time spent in the garden

In life eventually, we learn to plant our own gardens instead of waiting for others to bring us flowers. How are you preparing and taking care of your own garden? — Vicky Prokopi

I often find myself starting out with very literal connections to these prompts. The pictures in my mind, and in my phone’s photo album, just so happened to roll right in synch for this one.

The picture above is a flower garden at my grandma’s house. For years I have visited and helped her with her flower gardens and potted plants in preparation for summer. For the past two years, I have not been able to help her because of the pandemic. I am visiting her now and I have spent more time than I would like to admit taking photos of the flowers she tended by herself.

The pictures came together in my mind as a series of life lessons.

Life Lesson 1: Share

The yellow flowers with the red buds were added to my grandma’s garden by her neighbor. My grandma also shared some with my mom. The flowers have multiplied in all three gardens.

I really like the yellow and red contrasting color these plants add to the gardens. It reminds me how much color is added to the world by sharing. I am going to take this as a sign to keep sharing my words and adding my perspective to the world.

Life Lesson 2: Sometimes you will get stung, shake it off.

Thi flower and tiny bee remind me of a nickname my grandpa had for me for about a week when I was five years old. He called me Black-Eyed Susan.

I earned the nickname when I was attending my grandparent’s wedding anniversary celebration. Unfortunately, I ran into the handrail at the church to blacken one of my eyes. Then, later that day, I walked too close to my cousins’ baseball game and got a second black eye from a practice batter. Not a lucky day for me, but a memorable one.

I got stung but I shook it off. I am taking this as a reminder that in most cases, no matter how bad things may seem in the moment, we can shake them off, and come out stronger.

Life Lesson 3: We determine our goals and our successes.

Again, I don’t want to admit how much time I have spent taking pictures around the same garden areas. But, I really want a picture of a bee flying for a book I am working on. This goal is harder to accomplish than I anticipated.

Of course, each attempt is turning out too blurry, a second too late, or in one of my attempts, I cut off a tiny part of the bee’s head.

In reality, the picture might not even need to be a bee flying or it might not have to be my original picture. It is up to me if I spend more of my time on the success of this goal or change my goal. Our measures of success, learning, and failure are ours to determine.

Life Lesson 4: You are never really alone

I had a friend that passed away years ago from cancer. He once shared with me his idea that ladybugs are good luck, visits from loved ones.

Even when we think we are alone, we are never really alone. This also reminds me that even though we must tend our own gardens, we can reach out for moral or physical help if we need to.

Ladybugs don’t move as fast as bees but they are much faster than I thought they were. Factor in the wind and you get a bit of blur here too, but I decided I had spent enough time at this photo session. I love the imperfectly perfect front dot on this ladybug. I guess that is the bonus lesson. Embrace the beauty of our imperfections.

Final Thoughts

There are lessons all around us. It is good practice to keep our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts open to these lessons so that we can tend our figurative gardens. We are all beautiful in so many ways when we are in full bloom! Ultimately, it is up to us to make it happen.

Thanks for reading! I hope everyone finds the lessons they need to keep them living in perfect alignment with their passions.

Thank you to Diana C. for providing the space for today’s guest prompt from Vicky Prokopi: In life eventually, we learn to plant our own gardens instead of waiting for others to bring us flowers. How are you preparing and taking care of your own garden?