Hatton gardening column: Endurance

0
237

BOB HATTON
| Yellow Globe News

I have said it many times. Gardening teaches patience. This spring because of damage

From the abnormal cold last autumn and winter I preached patience, plants one

good chance to show that they may not be dead. I was even guilty of giving up on one

few of my own who didn’t have enough patience to see they were still alive.

How did we live without cell phones and the constant talking and texting that goes with them

You? We have to be available to everyone immediately and at all times. News organizations

Race to see who can get the story out first with today’s technology. Until you see

In the news from the TV station, it’s an old news item that was already in one of the news items

Time channels. And God forbid you have to read about it in the newspaper … the next day! Many have forgotten the story by then.

For anyone caught at this fast pace, I recommend gardening. Gardening teaches patience, which is necessary for gardening. The old trees in your garden and park have not grown in a week, month or year. Patience offers rewards like the plant that surprisingly sprouts after you’ve pronounced it dead, lowers your blood pressure by allowing you to relax and unwind, and promotes health benefits through exercise, stretching muscles, and maintaining balance. It encourages you to be active, not sedentary.

Many things associated with gardening are beyond our control. Weather, floods, droughts, health, time, life events and many others are examples of barriers to controlling gardens and gardening.

Years ago when I got a job in New York City, I lived in the suburbs of New Jersey and rode the train and subway to work. After taking the bus to work in St. Louis and then relying entirely on public transport in New Jersey, I learned that there is no need to stew over things that you can’t control, like how to Example of the delays that sometimes occur. I found that the world never ended because of things beyond my control. Life went on almost as always.

In the garden, workarounds are found in every situation, the delayed work is abandoned or changed or other precautions are taken. Anyway, the situation couldn’t be changed, so why should I be upset? The calm demeanor that patience generally gives me reinforces my mantra “do what you want to do when you want to”. This intention, by which I have lived and spoken of for many years, I recently adopted a different one. “Do what you can with what you have where you are.” I stole this from a podcast. Patience and serenity, which I have learned from gardening in particular, allow me to continue to enjoy and treat things as they are, even if they are not the way I would like them to be. Gardening is good.