What plant, flower or tree are you in the human garden?

Today I was reading Mark Nepo’s book Seven Thousand Ways to Listen and came across the following journal exercise: “If you are a plant, or flower, or tree in the human garden, describe yourself and describe your roots and shoots”. Almost immediately I knew that I saw myself as a wild flower but it took a little longer to unravel this.

I kept thinking about the poppies growing in my front garden on a rock where a pocket of soil had gathered. Each time I saw them, I was amazed at the number of flowers supported by such a small amount of dirt. And I realised that wild flowers flourish in uncertain conditions. They grow in the broken places, in cracks and corners, where it is barren and the soil is sparce. Wild flowers show up wherever their seeds land, even in forgotten places along the broken fence line where the gate hangs off its hinges.

Wild flowers remind me that we can still find beauty when it all feels broken; we can still take root and bloom when it feels barren. By keeping our hearts open and remaining vulnerable, by allowing both pain and joy, tears and laughter, we can learn to dance with abandon like wild flowers caressed by the breeze. There have been many times in my life when I have needed to remember this message.

What would you journal to Mark Nepo’s prompt: “If you are a plant, or flower, or tree in the human garden, describe yourself and describe your roots and shoots”?