Quote of the Day: Ralph Waldo Emerson
September 12th, 2010
Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.
I’ve definitely learned patience through gardening! I believe gardening is about the process not the final product, which is why I don’t buy a lot of mature plants. I prefer to start things from cuttings and spend years nurturing them into beautiful plants or start things from seed.
Has gardening helped teach you patience?
Gardening has helped but I’m still not nearly patient enough. Having my kids has worked more towards my gaining patience but that’s another story. LOL.
to Debbie's comment
I don’t know if “patient” is the right word for it, but gardening has definitely helped me to think longer-term and be less focused on immediate outcomes, or on any particular outcome. Am I going to have peppers this year? Tomatoes? Carrots? Parsnips? Beets? Peas? Corn? Squash? Melons? Cucumbers? I don’t know. I’ll plant them all and see what comes out, and then make good out of what I get.
to Joshua's comment
absolutely! The most valueable lesson I’ve learnt is that everything in the garden has a natural cycle in spite of what I may or may not do to help or hinder it. I’ve had aphid infestations that have resolved themselves (thanks to the ladybirds I suspects) and plants that have been on the brink of death reviving when busy-ness with other things has seen me leave them in the ground rather than pull them up. When my long ‘to do’ list causes the wisened gardener in me to depart I re-read Naomi Long Madgetts poem ‘Woman with flower’ and am reminded that there’s a big difference between nurturing and interfering! (a bit long to write it all out here for you but well worth a read if only for the final line – ‘the things we love we have to learn to leave alone’. http://nipitinthebud.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/reminders/
to nic@nipitinthebud's comment
It’s taught me patience but also what nipitinthebud says, which is to be so much more grounded in and in sync with nature’s cycles. As a gardener, I’m realizing that you can nurture, facilitate, and come up with creative solutions, but in the end, nature will take its course, sometimes leading to your plants’ ends but many times, surprising you with beauty. I was just writing about how gardening for me has been a way to follow my bliss in this sense! http://togetherinfood.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/following-your-bliss/
to Stephanie Morimoto's comment
Yes, patience and humbleness. Sometimes we are at the mercy of Mother Nature and that reminds me that I’m only partially responsible for the successes and failures of my garden.
to Jackie's comment
Love the Emerson quote- I’d never heard it before. I came to your blog via a picture of a spider…I saw a wierd looking yellow spider today @ work and when I started looking for pictures of it on line, I saw you’d taken a picture of one (google/ image)
Love the themes of your blog….Just this Spring I’ve been bitten with the bug of growing heirloom tomatoes, saving their seeds, etc. I’ll be back! DM
to Douglas Monk's comment