What is a
masterpiece? It takes a healthy mix of
humility and courage to walk towards your life's fulfillment; to go where you
have yet to go, to create your own unique, imperfect masterpieces.
Perhaps we
need to pay more attention to the example that the lowly weed sets: Weeds are actually unique, and when closely
looked at, very intricate masterpieces.
There is no way that any of us can create that same piece of outstanding
artistry. The problem is that they dare
to pop up in spaces that do not welcome or encourage them.
If they had a society for abused weeds - ‘unwanted’ plants - what would their
complaints be? “Help – We’re being
stepped on, our feet chopped off, pulled by the hair, and spoken to quite rudely! We thought our contribution would be
appreciated but, clearly, grass is the only genus welcome." In our finite human wisdom, we
condescendingly insist on helping Mother Nature to correct her obvious errors.
The weeds
know better - They are trying to tell us that our soil is actually ideal for
them, that poor ‘monsieur grass’ is the one struggling to grow in the wrong
spot. Perhaps I'll stop stressing about not having
perfect green carpeting everywhere out there; The patch of wild strawberries
that showed up last summer in our back yard, together with bits of moss, are
confirming the fact that the soil in that area is acidic – not the best soil
for growing a lush lawn, but perfect for wild strawberries, and sorrel (tart
but yummy on a cheese sandwich!), in other words, an edible lawn! That is just
fine with me; I’m in no hurry to correct that mistake.
In this
larger garden that makes up my life, I'll try to nourish my soil with plenty of
that healthy humility-courage mix, and I'll keep the phone number for the
Master Gardener handy for those times when my garden becomes muddled, when my confidence becomes choked out by fear. I'll try to picture successes as I’m making my
inevitable mistakes, and I hope that some day I will look back and, lo and behold,
there will be a long lineup of sparkling efforts - an imperfect but beautiful
path that others may follow, learn from,
and improve on.
I’ll just
make sure I sprinkle lots of smile seeds as I go, that I speak kindly to the
plants, and that I try not to correct
all of my mistakes too quickly - I may be overlooking some real masterpieces!
Oh look - There's another dandelion, and
another, and another, and an...... Peace!
