Many years ago I used to visit my friend Ruthy’s garden. She was not only a master gardener but a wise woman.

“A garden teaches you both patience and acceptance” my friend Ruthy sighed at one point in our conversation. “You put a seed in the ground one morning in the spring and then you wait for it to produce a bloom. Finally a bud comes out and you watch daily for it to open. Then, unexpectedly overnight a squirrel eats it!” That was just example of a life lesson in patience and acceptance learned in the garden.

Ruthy has found that, no matter what the season, a garden teaches spontaneity and non attachment. “You have to be able to respond to what’s there and to the reality that nothing is permanent. A garden teaches you about that you need to get rid of stuff that isn’t right for you, It teaches you about birth and death and about what’s important in between.

Blooming is important, coming to fruition is important. Another thing that a garden teaches us is about its audacity. Seeds will blow in from who knows where and they’ll shoot out of the ground and start to bloom. That’s taught me to put my own two feet on the ground and grow into a flower that blooms – and to be audacious about it”.  That thought motivated Ruthy to recite one of the many poems she’s written.

I was born from a seed and grew into a voracious plant,
Part of this garden and intimate in all ways.
Taking food and water as I rise here in the flower sway.
Breathing plant energy, shivering down my spine.
My toes digging in with savory excitement,
Fingertips growing rhythms as I touch and groom,
And bury my nose in fluffy blossom.
That is why the garden sustains me and I, in turn, give it life.
There cannot be one without the other.

Our conversation for that day was ending. As I waved goodbye and started to walk away Ruthy had a bit more garden wisdom to share. “All of my poetry was inspired by keeping my hands in the dirt, as the gardener sows, the gardener grows”