Gardening is not my thing. I have so much respect for those with a green thumb, but it’s just never been my forte. Now that my life is slowing down a bit, Mr. ShuGar and I have decided to make improvements to our house, little by little. One of the first projects has been to beautify our garden by creating a hedge in our backyard. With the help of my daddy, we planted a series of privets and jasmines along our wall so that eventually we could have some nice privacy from our neighbors.
The planting project was successful and we have maintained a strict watering regime to ensure that the plants establish roots. I don’t have a clue how long it would take for these small plants to grow month to month. All I know is that we have been diligently watering and waiting for new leaves to sprout. Most have new growth – Most, except this one stubborn jasmine.
Now, in its defense, it was smaller than the other newly planted jasmines. My daddy had already been watering the other jasmines weeks before our project, but we decided to buy one more last minute. Ever since that day, I’ve watched it struggle compared to the other plants. At some point, it even appeared to be digressing! What?
Patience is not something I have tons of. I am someone that wants immediate results. I admit this is a definite weakness. Plus, gardening is not a natural hobby of mine so I sort of was expecting instant growth since I was making an effort on my end. It was an unspoken pact between me and these plants; I water, you grow. They all appeared to be complying, except this one belligerent, tiny jasmine. Over a month had passed and still not much progress, at least not until today.
Take a look at the picture. If you look closely, you can see new leaves sprouting! There is an especially beautiful one at the very top. Finally! I think I’m learning what gardening is all about: learning to appreciate growth, even when it’s not apparent to the naked eye. It’s about having faith that your efforts are making a difference and will be fruitful one day.
No wonder I never gravitated towards gardening; I have struggled with this my entire life. I see this challenge still manifested in many areas of my life.
- I want to move forward in my career quickly. I am motivated, dedicated and work extremely hard. I would like to ascend the career ladder, sooner rather than later. However, there is growth in learning my current position and becoming an expert in my responsibilities. I can grow in other ways to prepare me for my next role, eventually.
- I want to immerse myself in blogging. I love it so much and I want to be successful at it. Yet, even though it has been a dream of mine for quite a long time, I have just started this journey. I can’t expect to have a million followers with the click of my “publish” button. I need to understand that I am growing daily because I am finally giving myself the avenue to write. This is already a huge leap in my life-long passion. I need to have faith that my words will touch someone in the blog world.
- I wish I could be like the TV mom from “Bewitched” and make all sorts of home improvements with the twitch of my nose. There are so many things I’d like to do for our house, but there is not enough time or money to do so. I would like to learn to appreciate the little things we can do and accept these as significant improvements.
- We would like to have a ShuGar baby, but it turns out it’s not that easy. I remember as a little girl thinking that as soon as you want a baby, poof, you will get pregnant! Ha! That’s SO not reality. I have to believe that our time will come and to be patient until it does. There is no point in stressing out about the “what ifs.” It’s out of our hands.
My baby jasmine serves as a metaphor for the aforementioned aspects of my life I would like to achieve. It’s about endurance, perseverance and faith. I need to keep nurtering these dreams of mine and give them time to establish roots. I must remember this because I let my impatience take over and cloud my judgment too often. Gardening is actually really relaxing. It sort of forces you to appreciate the silence. There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you finally see a tiny leaf pop out. It is a physical magnification that your love and hard work inspired new life.
Photo credit: Mrs. ShuGar
