Gardening consciously teaches the gardener about nurturing.
Nurturing is most often associated with care of babies, children, holding space for our spouses or loved ones, and helping the elderly. But nurturing is a practice, a skill, an attitude of gentleness, hope, and perseverance. Once learned, gardeners will find that they can apply it elsewhere in their lives and foster new life, there, too.
It is akin to the Chinese concept of 'gōngfu', which refers to any learning or practice taking patience, energy, and time to complete. It can refer to skills in a any discipline obtained through hard work, practice and care. Examples include the disciplines of calligraphy or learning the gongfu tea making ceremony.
Sweeping your porch, consciously, is an act of nurturing. Weeding or turning your soil, consciously, is an act of nurturing. Writing a letter, rather than sending a text, can be an act of nurturing. When we practice these mundane acts we learned from the soil, we heal ourselves.
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