in life, practice good stewarship

There’s a reason that gardening is a metaphor for living. Actually, there are dozens.

Today, I finally attended to the rock garden. It was vastly overgrown with weeds. Over the years, my neighbor’s lily of the valley has intruded into this garden, the weeds that never seem to die but that need pulling every year have wended their way everywhere and the plants I want have just extended their own tendrils as far as they can. It was chaos.

As I worked, every metaphor for living a life of choice came into view. Nip that in the bud. Pull that out by the roots. Transplant what you want to keep. Observe your boundaries. Tend to that which you want to nurture with love and attention. Try something new. Recognize when something has fulfilled its purpose or run its course. Know when to pull back, know when to extend your reach.

Gardening itself is a chore, another metaphor for living. Sometimes you just want to crawl under the covers and ignore it, hope that someone else will come along and take care of it for you. Sometimes a drought or a flood comes along and kills everything and you have to decide if you want to start over or move on. And sometimes, just like life, you finally decide to face the task, do your best with what you have today, and get dirty. You get sore, you make hard decisions and tender ones, you establish boundaries and you just work at it. You work at it until you are satisfied that this is the best you have to give today.

And then you clean up and rest. Tomorrow’s another day. Another day to grow, to nurture, to decide, to cope, to cull, to plan, to get dirty, to make your mark.

May you be the steward of the garden that is your life while you are here on earth, and may it bring you happiness and satisfaction.

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5/11/2026