A Gardener's Lessons in Love

Romantic love is a wild garden. We place our seeds in the soil and trust an organic process that has no guarantee. Tending to our gardens day by day, we press faith in fresh saplings, marrows, tomatoes or for another cycle in our willow or oak.

Still, anything is possible. Nature is living and breathing and we may find things ravaged by slugs, squirrels and crows. Much like in relationships, the care, time and effort we place is not enough and no guarantee.

Love is a wild thing we can protect, respect and tend to, but never control or bend it to our will. Accept the cycles, seasons and motions of love - the stillness, the sudden spurts and perhaps the reality of nothing coming from our efforts.

The gardener, in any case, must continue to tend to the soil - pouring energy and nourishing the other relationships that remain in their care, as well as welcoming entirely new ones.

Take courage in romantic love. It is a brave thing to do, even when it ends. Even more courageous, when we choose to plant once more and tend to the next relationship with just as much care and devotion. Perhaps a little wiser and wary of potential set backs but still willing to try again and risking all we have.

It truly is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. Take heart is what is yet to come, yet to grow and yet to flourish. Take strength in what remains, what has developed, and made richer and brighter.

Nature's cycles remind us that some love stories last hundreds of years and others a matter of weeks or months. The length of time is one factor, but it is the quality of our relationships that we must draw strength and joy from.

Some will end, some will transform and some will endure. It is the variety that emboldens and uplifts us. Embrace variety and draw on the lessons of each partner you share your time with. All are teachers in the wild ways of love.

Remember that you are free to choose where you place your efforts. Once you tend to and care for another, be prepared for any eventuality. It is courageous to love, particularly when you have been met by disappointment.

Never give up on your gardens. There is always a chance and a way for love. Always some growth, some depth, some compassion and some beauty to be met with. Perhaps not always on the timelines you might have envisaged but perhaps that is unimportant, and unique to each of us.