Tending the ivy...

Yesterday I found myself on my knees in my garden, happily tending to two ivy creeper plants that I’ve been ‘looking after’ for a few years now, utterly lost in the moment in nature. This though has not actually always been my experience when tending to these lovely little plants, if I'm totally honest.

You see the initial aim of this micro project of mine was to eventually cover the rather banal fence behind the ivy, with the ivy. It’s all about aesthetics eh, for us humans… Yes, if I’m totally honest, my original motivating factor to devote some occasional time here to the two little ivy plants, was all about the future finished look, for the fence. In other words hide the fence, oh the irony of it all…

However after a while I was beginning to notice that sadly this micro project was becoming yet another chore to attend to, on the forever to-do list…and further to that it never seemed to move up that list. Hence I began to find myself sitting in my garden looking over sometimes wistfully, sometimes guiltily at said banal fence and the two little ivy plants desperately struggling to make any headway up or across that fence.

So a couple of months ago, I decided to face this ‘issue’ head on! I got down on my knees and assessed those two little plants at very close range. I soon found myself being drawn to following each little branch coming away from the main stem, to see where it ultimately led to. Some branches confidently aimed directly skywards (lovely) other often rather longer, more winding branches seemed to naturally creep steadily away at right angles to the main branch, rather than directly upwards. For this clearly was their path that they were following. I could see it clearly before my eyes. Their nature, their very DNA was leading them in this direction. And yet these right angled (and indeed all sorts of other angled) branches were most clearly intrinsically part of this one whole little ivy plant. Different branches bearing different leaves going off in different directions, yet all stemming from the one central anchoring branch. This was the true nature of this seemingly simple, yet on closer inspection, highly complex and beautifully rich little ivy plant, I happily pondered.

I then started to think imagine if human society could run in this manner? Imagine if everyone was allowed to follow their true nature, their true DNA? Imagine if everyone of us tended to the one human plant, coming from a place of respect and compassion and accommodation for all, regardless of the angle their unique path led them along? For this is most definitely a little plant worth tending to, worth being lost in nature to!

Tending to my little ivy plants is now no longer a chore. For it’s a gentle reminder to me of the glorious rich makeup of all our differences in our human family and of how we are intrinsically linked to each other and intrinsically need each other, in order for us all to flourish, against the backdrop of any fences and barriers we might encounter on our paths.