by Will Kester

Created on: April 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 17, 2007

What has gardening taught me? Patience, lots and lots of patience; that's what gardening has taught me. I'm not sure about reincarnation, but a friend of mine who is certain we are reincarnated, says we have to learn a lesson while here, and if he's right, mine is patience. I want it and I want it right now. In a garden, it doesn't happen that way.

Many years ago, I lived where I had a vegetable garden. It was frustrating to plant one day and go out to see how they were doing the next morning and nothing had happened. Gradually, I learned to be patient, not very patient, but a bit. I was learning.

In most endeavors in life, I learned too quickly, wanting something really, really badly was the key to success. The more you wanted it, the harder you worked; the harder you worked, the faster it happened. It fed my concept of how the world should be. I rose in the corporate world. I rose in financial prosperity. I wanted it all and wanted it, right now.

My vegetable garden didn't understand the rules, my rules. Giving them extra fertilizer and water didn't speed up their growth a bit. Standing there, with my hands on my hips, looking crossly at the bare plowed ground didn't help, either. The bare soil just looked back at me and said, "Wait; it will be worth it."

The little green shoots eventually popped from their beds and smiled to the sun and me. I ran into the house and woke up the family. "Come look!" I said. For some reason, they weren't as impressed as I was. They rubbed the sleep from their eyes and said things like, "Yeah, whatever." I was ecstatic. The patience was worth it, what little I had shown.

Fast forward to today. I now live in the city and don't have a huge vegetable garden, but I have a nice little yard with roses and huge shade trees. I bought the house, pruned some existing, unkempt roses, and began to make plans for improvements. Not having much patience, still, I began with annuals to dress up the place as quickly as possible. Sparkling little bright yellow pansies and petunias helped some, but it needed more. I planted bulbs.

Now, I had learned from the past that gardening takes time, and bulbs take a winter to produce. I now had enough patience to endure a long cold winter in anticipation of the coming Spring's blooms, just barely. I put in crocus, tulips, and iris. I waited for Spring, pacing the floor in front of the fireplace, waiting for the sun to come back and bring forth my precious bulbs. The crocus peaked through the snow and I

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