If I am not careful, every day I work in the garden--and I work
there everyday--can seem so ordinary that I don't care. I pull a puff of
invading grass, dead-head the spent roses and coreopses before seed pods
develop, prune the Texas poppies, stake a leaning a gladilus stalk, cut
the deflowered amaryllis stalks, pick the spent daylilly flower, transplant
a galardia or echinecea seedling, nurture a Wandering Jew cutting, spread
around the coffee grounds (natural slow-acting nitrogen-producing
fertilizer), turn the compose heap, soak the chewing tobacco (nicotine is
a natural insect repellant), trim, thin, shape, snip, and on and on it
goes. Yep, it all can seem so ordinary, monotonous, routine if I am
careless enough not to be careful not to care. There is, however, nothing
tiresome about the picky stuff. There is nothing ordinary about when I
ordinarily move about the garden. Every moment is one of those "it needs
to be done" important choice. Every moment is one of those "don't give
me any excuses" moment. Every moment is one of those "it serves a
purpose" moment. Every moment is one of those "don't take the easy way
out" moment. Every moment is a "pay attention and see and listen to the
details" moment. Every moment is a "do a little bit more and better than
you did yesterday" moment. Every moment is an "opportunity of a lifetime"
moment. Every moment is a "dig in and make it happen" moment. Every
moment is one of those "it makes a difference" moment. Every moment is
one of those "laying the groundwork" moment. Every moment is a "put in
the effort to make it happen moment." Gardening is not composed of
putting off "someday" moments.
A moment is not a very long time. Yet everything that I have ever
been accomplished in my garden, has been done in a string of moments in a
string of days, one after the other. The nature of the garden is that I
can't do it all at once. The nature of gardening is to be both in every
moment and beyond it. And so, every "little bit" day counts. Little is
huge, and small is a lot. Every day is extraordinary. Every day is
important. Every day is a consequence. Every day is a cause. Every day is
an action. Every day is a result. Every day is powerful. Sometimes it's
hard for me to see the connection. Nevertheless, it's there. It's
inevitability is there. Without this linkage there are no possibilities,
no dreams, no opportunities, no choices, no accomplishment. That makes
everyday important and great. That makes sure every day is a critical
link. That makes sure no day is routine or monotonous. That makes sure
every day is large and impressive. And that makes sure I am enthusiastic
everyday about each day.
Every day in my garden is made of small, barely noticeable, but
essential accomplishments. If I am successful in my gardening, it is the
result of consistently assembling one successful, positively directed,
focused moment after another. A beautiful garden is not a vague and
distant concept. It is a clear and specific everyday affair. Without
daily little things, there's nothing to add up to make the big things.
So, there are no little things. It is nothing more than small successes
which have been sustained over a long enough period. It is created in the
small moments, which one by one add up to big results.
Premier and fast are not synonyms. There are not in cooking;
they are not in gardening; they are not in teaching. Like my garden,
teaching is an everyday affair. You can't be hooked on fast effort. There
is no deep, dark, hidden secret to success teaching any more or less than
there is to successful gardening. It's clear and easy to see. Success
comes from doing what needs to be done, not what you want to do; success
comes from doing when it needs to be done, not when it is convenient to
you. If I want to be a good gardener or a good teaching, doing the least
or just enough is not enough. There's no short cut no matter what some
self-proclaimed, motivational guru may say or write. A blooming garden
isn't the result of platitudes and good intentions. It comes from days
and moments lived with the sincere and committed effort to just keep
digging and making it happen.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698 /~\ /\ /\
229-333-5947 /^\ / \ / /~\ \ /~\__/\
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