A Gardener Can't Make a Rose Bloom

A gardener never made a rose bloom. As a passionate gardener, I wish I could make all the flowers in my garden bloom when I want them to bloom and how I want them to bloom! But alas, it doesn't work that way. What I CAN do is to tend to the conditions under which a rose will---might---bloom: I enrich the soil with things roses like, I plant the rose bush in a place where it will get lots of sun, I fertilize the rose bush regularly, I spray it to remove bugs, I water it when its thirsty, I even might talk to it and entreat it to reward me with a dazzling display of blooms.

Despite all of my efforts, it may or may not bloom. But the effort still matters.

Our lives are similar. We may desperately want our partner to stay, our child to grow up healthy and happy, or a job to open up just when we need it, but we can't MAKE any of those things happen.

What we CAN do is tend to the conditions under which these things might bloom: work with our partner to create a culture of mutual respect, kindness, and forgiveness, parent our children with love and appropriate boundaries and opportunities, thoroughly educate ourselves for the type of job we aspire to. That's it. We cannot force those things to happen.

The best gardener in the world never made a rose bloom. Likewise, we can be our best self but we can't force our goals and aspirations to happen.

But we CAN cultivate the conditions within which our dreams and hopes goals may firmly root and bloom.

The effort of cultivation can be just as satisfying as enjoying the bloom.