Wednesday 21 April 2010

Hope

You might remember that I am a Mind Media Volunteer, well at the moment there are some personal stories going up on the Mind blog in relation to Depression Awareness Week April 18th-24th 2010. I shall be one of those people but I want to talk about today's post by Steve and I hope you will read it and then the previous piece by Dave.

Anyway one the comments after Steve's excellent piece really caught my eye today; a quote from Dr Martin Luther King Jr, I think it applies to all aspects of life and even gardening ;)

'We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.'

I personally find this very powerful and just wanted to share it with you. What a joy it is to be a gardener!! We never lose that hope, we never plant a seed and wish that nothing happens, we don't tend to the seedlings and the soil with a desire to make conditions worse so they will fail. We are eternal optimists, we can't help it and damn it why would be want to be anything else! Yes we face disappointment all the time; seeds don't germinate, plants die or we get blight but we fight on, we plant more seeds we do what we can to help the plant live, to stop the spread of infection, to kill as many bloody slugs as possible! Weeds be gone, you are but an inconvenience. A finite disappointment to a gardener never holds them back. Let's apply this to all aspects of our lifes.

I wish you infinite hope; I wish it for myself.


5 comments:

  1. Oh, Carrie, what an inspirational post! You are so right about the garden being the perfect illustration of that infinite hope. Thank you for the dose of infinite hope today.

    p.s. As I typed this comment a yellow swallowtail butterfly fluttered slowly past the window, wings spread to catch the sun. :)

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  2. Very true I tend to be an optimistic gardener but worry about everything else going wrong!

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  3. It's so true. I think as gardeners we have to have a lot of hope with everything that can go wrong.

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  4. I was a volunteer and trustee of my local branch of Mind! Most people really don't understand depression and those who suffer don't really want to 'come out' because of the stigma attached to it. More power to you, Carrie!! xx

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  5. Carrie girl .. that is what I find so odd about myself. I do not trust people .. or situations in life .. I am a pessimist to the bone .. yet in contradiction I have always seen the glass half full, not half empty .. and I am a total, total, gardener to the bone so how is it I am in such contradiction to myself every day that I'm alive ;-)
    Joy
    PS .. great words dear Carrie : )

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