Lessons from the garden – rejuvenation
This last winter was a hard one in my neck of the woods – colder and snowier than normal, it took its tole on the garden and the heating bill. When the snow receded and some plants started to leaf out, others just sat there doing a good impression of dead. And some of them were. Others it turned out were prepared to start over. Not only did my laziness in not ripping things out of the ground right away pay off, but I saw how determined even a plant can be to survive. I will mourn the seven feet of stateliness my bay tree had achieved in the herb garden. That’s all kindling now for next winter, but even though I had to cut it down to the ground, there are new shoots coming up from beneath. It won’t be quite the same tree, there’s no central trunk anymore, and it will take a few years at least to get to any substantial size but it’s alive. And taking a new form.
Surely if a plant can come back from devastation, people can as well. Just in a new form, maybe one designed to survive that type of experience or to take on something completely new.
