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What my garden taught me is that you have to give in order to receive. Sometimes just making an effort is not enough. You have to get ripped by thorns, ruin your fingernails and get really dirty before you get any results.

The garden I had in South Africa grew like a jungle. We receive summer rain and of course there is nothing better a plant likes. Water and heat. It was more of a case of how to get stuff NOT to grow, than having to coax anything.

Not that I mind the flowers and trees and grass growing like crazy. I have come to like a bushy garden. It would be nice though if the grass were not so enthusiastic about growing. Having to mow the lawn every single week can get to be a bit of a chore.

It was during one of these lawn mowing exercises that I realized that this is the price that you have to pay. You want an emerald green garden for for children to play on? You want a stretch of green to sooth your soul? Well this is where you start paying. Mow baby!

Have you ever realized how great you feel after you have mowed the lawn? Everything smells wonderfully green... and a bit sweaty if I want to be real. But it is honest sweat. You are so busy concentrating on not cutting your foot or the cable that you forget to think. You are just in the moment of mowing the lawn.

There is something Zen-like about walking to and fro in the garden, dragging this machine behind you. If somebody could invent a noiseless mower, he could make millions with his "garden relaxer machine."

The same goes for weeding and trimming. You want tidy beddings? Get on your knees and weed. You want cut roses to fill the house with their smell? Start dead heading, start mulching and be get ready to be pricked. Pretty roses do not JUST grow on bushes.

What I am trying to say that anything worth your while in life needs effort on your part. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is really hard. It is the effort that you put in, the journey that you have traveled that makes reaching the end so much sweeter.

When I sat in my garden in the late afternoons sipping lemonade and smelling the wonderful scents, I really appreciate everything. I appreciate the wonderful color of green. I appreciate the sound of the birds chatting to each other and I appreciate myself for working so hard in the garden.

You do not truly live if you do not make an effort. When you are struggling, do not despair. You will reach your goal and it will be so much better because you have worked so hard to reach it.

Learn more about this author, Marina Shemesh.
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