Gardening can teach us what is within and beyond our control. You can water during a drought, dig trenches in a deluge, and cut away the trunk of a broken, fallen tree. But you can’t demand the rain to start, the river to stop, or the tree to right itself again.
Sometimes, gardening tells us that the only thing we can do is our best to adapt to the situation and ride it out. The weather will change, for better or worse. Time will pass, trees will fall, and new trees will rise. We may see them begin, but we will not see them reach maturity. We are fleeting in comparison to nature, and sometimes all we can do is weather the proverbial storm.
This doesn’t excuse the gardener from working toward their goals—bending to nature’s inevitability while trying to channel it toward their own best ends. It is not surrender; it is understanding where we stand in comparison to nature’s will. We embrace the work, doing what we can to create a canvas of flowers for bees, for friends, for neighbors, and for ourselves. But even with the best of intentions and the greatest of striving, sometimes all there is to do is ride it out.
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