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Writing and gardening are both popular activities that are centered on growth. Growth occurs both within the product that is being created, and also within the writer or gardener. Much like a writer takes his pen in hand with some intent of developing his own thoughts, the gardener takes his shovel up in order that he might escape to nature and be among his thoughts for a bit.

This introspection is undertaken through an activity that ultimately has a goal of creation for both the writer and the gardener. Namely, writing and gardening.The writer puts words on a page with the intent of crafting a story, and a fiction writer will nurture his characters and his stories until they are fully grown and developed. A gardener does the same with his flowers. He or she is not satisfied until the seed that has been planted has fully and healthily bloomed. Returning day after day and hour after hour to their creations, neither the gardener nor the writer are satisfied until they have allowed something to fully bloom as a result of their labors.

The difficult labors of both the gardener and the writer can follow two different paths. Just as a gardener may raise vegetables for their practical use and the possibility of earning money from their sale, a writer may compose a piece with an end goal of its usefulness in earning money.

However, the gardener and the writer may also both use their talents simply to create beauty. A gardener can easily use his or her green thumb to nurture and grow beautiful flowers. A writer can easily use his or her talents to craft an entertaining, enriching, and beautiful story.

Writers and gardeners both do what they love, and they do it with no firm promise of a great return of profit for their investment of time. Writers and gardeners nourish the minds and bodies of the world. Those who are not a part of either pursuit may never know the spectacular effort that goes into writing a masterpiece or planting and caring for a beautiful garden, but the casual observer will always appreciate the final outcome of these efforts.

Gardening is a perfect metaphor for writing; the comparison of the two activities reaches into the depths of both activities and enlivens both of them. The effort and products of gardening, and the pure beauty of them, makes one better understand the effort, products, and beauty of writing.

Learn more about this author, Jamie Elizabeth.
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