How Does Your Garden Grow?

So I love having a garden. I said this out loud as I wrote it, with Saria sitting right next me. And she posed this question: "You like taking care of it?" Well, that's not my favorite part. Although it certainly makes me care about the garden a lot more. Because of the efforts I put into it, I care about how it is doing and what it produces. And so I guess I get to thank this cute little girl in purple froggy pajamas who is sitting next to me for an insight into my garden that I wasn't pondering as I started to write this.

Because I was having deep thoughts about the garden. And that is why I am writing a random blog (not on a Sunday or Monday ;)). So I posed my question -- which is part of a song, if you will. A nursery rhyme. And I posed it, because as I was tending my garden yesterday, watering it (we've had quite a stretch of sunny, hot, rain-free days in Washington), my mind reviewed the two gardens I have planted. And a new life-lesson occurred to me. An eternal truth I have always known, but sometimes, when I see applications to things in my daily life, I can better understand them. I better internalize them. They "hit home" to me, I guess. And this is one more reason I love to have a garden. I have had several such "lightbulb moments" as I have grown my gardens. And sometimes it just gives me such a warm feeling inside, and I desire to share it.

So yeah, there I was, watering the garden in the bright sunshine. And my mind drifted over last year's garden. I remember the effort of watering the garden every day. And I remember that I always saw a day of rain as an opportunity for free (and effortless) watering! (These are things you actually consider when you get old like me ;)). But then, the flip side of that coin was this year. When we had such a long, long "winter." We had so much rain and cloud-cover that nothing was growing. And so it "hit me" (although I already knew it...): How does a garden grow? Why, with rain AND sunshine. It must have both for the garden to grow.

And then I looked at life. And once again, I saw how -- when you look for it -- you can find eternal truths all throughout nature. It does take the bitter and the sweet. The rain and the shine. Without both, we will not grow. And sometimes, the bouts of rain seem interminable. But when we get through them, and see how they have helped us to grow, we can appreciate the value of them. I'm not going to lie: Sometimes growing is hard. But it's so worth it. Because one day, the fruit we yield will be sweeter than we can possibly imagine. (But since I planted vegetables, as Saria is pointing out to me right now, I guess I need to say the vegetable will be crispier). But anyway... The point is... Life is full of lessons. And sometimes it takes the rain. But sometimes it takes the shine :). And ultimately, from both together, you grow :).

Unless you're one of these two whackos!(So I told Saria: "This picture will make Jeremy love me even more." She said, "No it won't because you look ugly in that picture." Thanks Saria. (Good thing I didn't put the really ugly one (because yes, we took a worse one...)).