#claviger

I was tending a garden - an immense garden. And it wasn’t for food or flowers - it was just about the health of the garden. I kept working and working to control it and contain it, and make it healthier… but the garden seemed to fight me at every turn. And after what seemed like days of work I finally gave up in frustration - and as I stood there, doing nothing, the garden flourished before my eyes - growing and spreading in every direction. Because (I realized), the system that the plants were based on was not about me shaping and controlling. The natural system of plants is healthier when they are out of control - when they are free to spread, and intermingle, and cross pollinate, and mutate. Now, from a human point of view, that may not provide what I want. I get smaller fruit, and smaller flowers, and untidiness. But from the point of view of the plants, they grow stronger and much more resilient and resistant. The more they are scattered the higher their odds of surviving. And now that I contemplate, I realize that even the individual plants/seeds may not appreciate the benefit of what’s happening. They are torn far from their origins, forced into situations that seem extreme – possibly even destroyed by these new environments. But for the seeds that survive… ah… the seeds that survive. Now that’s where real growth, strength, and abundance comes from. It’s so beautiful and terrifying. Beyond the beauty of it all is a system and structure that defies understanding.