How Does Your Garden Grow?
Every month I receive my subscription to a beautiful gardening magazine. This isn't because I'm a beautiful gardener but because I aspire to be a beautiful gardner one day. This magazine profiles gardens all over the country with stunning landscapes, water features, perfectly placed potting sheds... Colors are coordinated. Weeds are pulled tirelessly. Every space is carefully evaluated for the perfect companion.
In contrast, our little garden (which is about the size of a postage stamp) is chock-full of violent color contrasts, plants that constantly outgrow their dedicated space and spill onto our walkway, and pots full of things that we shouldn't even try to grow in our climate. In short, it is a tangled mess of color, leaves and mulch.And, yet, there is something about our messy little garden that I love so much. Even if I knew how to color coordinate plants and create a landscape plan, I don't think I would. I'd stick with our own gorgeous mess because isn't that exactly what life is?Don't we all see the picture perfect images of wives, mothers, daughters, husbands, and sons and think, "yes, I WILL start alphabetizing my DVDs and arranging my closet by color and sleeve length!"In truth, how many of us fail to get the dinner dishes done every night? Or get our clean laundry folded and put away? Are anyone's DVDs really alphabetized?! I'm willing to guess this is more of us than not. And, this is exactly what our yoga practice is for. Our practice is teaching us over and over again that there isn't someplace better we need to get to. There isn't a better version of ourselves that we need to find or create. The practice is continually showing us the beauty and joy in the RIGHT NOW. Exactly as things are.Messy gardens and all.
