The Chanting Typist: How Does Your Garden Grow?

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

how does your garden grow?

with silver bells and cockle shells

and pretty maids all in a row."

     This eighteenth century English lyric was once a favorite of mine as a child. I had a thick hardcover book of poems from a collection of the World Book Encyclopedia set, and this rhyme, to me, had a fun, flowing jingle to it when I read it. Although, I had no idea what it meant or the supposed reference to Mary Queen of Scots at the time.

     But even so, though knowing a bit about its history, that's not what it brings to mind now. It comes to mind because it reminds me to examine my own personal garden. As I stop to contemplate the words of the poem itself, I realize that just like Mary is quite contrary, there is a revealing aspect of my own self spoken in those words. Noticing where I have gone against my true feelings in order to go along with popular culture rather than vice versa, I neglected the sanctity of my very own personal garden.

     Earth is a garden of souls, with each soul inhabiting life and growing their own gardens. Some souls have spoiled their own gardens and look onto others' and try tending to those instead. Some souls have just let their gardens dry up, while on the opposite side of the spectrum some have flourished and thrived enough to share their supple crops with anyone who so desires. Where does my garden fall into? Where does yours?

Well, I started out planting seeds that were true to me, and along the way I took a peek at my neighbors' and friends' garden and began to envy some of their crops so I may have taken some of their seeds to grow in my garden; only to discover that because they were seeds that were not a part of my nature, they either refused to grow or wilted when they did. As I left that behind me and replanted my garden, this time I went with what I thought was good for me, still trying to fit in. The garden grew, I achieved some plentiful crops, but I never stored any for a rainy day. When I came across a bad season, I had nothing to fall back on. My garden was empty, dry, and the soil was no good for planting more. This is where the refrain of "You reap what you sow" comes to mind.

So how does my garden grow now? By experiencing all the varied seasonal temperaments over the course of so many years (lets not say how many), I have learned the ups and downs of tending to the garden of my life. I have learned how to enrich the soil, and know how important it is to keep weeds at bay, water it as needed, never overdoing it, and making sure it has plenty of sunlight with just enough shade and cover from the harsh weather. Some people are natural born gardeners. I am definitely not one of them. Or was I... but maybe somewhere along the way I must have decided to rely on a modified and artificially produced way of living that I forgot how to? Well, I am back to the basics. It turns out that when it comes to my garden, I happen to be growing it just as I like it -- planting what is good for me, and harvesting all the wonderful naturally grown rewards from it. And yes, I now remember to store a portion of those for when the seasons don't necessarily behave as expected.

I realize I talk a lot about life and its ups and downs, and how I apply different metaphors with the same twist and turns on life. But let's face it, life is the biggest mystery of all, and we all have that in common -- we are living it, and for the most part we are trying to live it as best we could. That's why I write about it. And this time around, I choose to describe life as a garden. After all, it is true that we reap what we sow, and even a rosebush can be admired with all its thorns... okay, maybe this last one doesn't quite apply to what I'm trying to explain here, but nevertheless, my life garden does have a few rosebushes growing in it! How does your garden grow?