This blog is vaguely divided into two parts. One on gardening. The other on stories we believe in. Both are relevant; as living through Covid-19, life has made me think about both. So, here goes..
The recent Corona scare and ensuing lockdown has given me some much needed time to reflect and ponder. What am I doing, where am I heading, am I... doing the things that matter and, finally, am I doing them correctly.
These and many more would come to mind when you are able to spend time with yourself.
2000 yrs ago, Marcus Tullius Cicero said something which comes to mind - "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need in life". Cicero was a champion of the Republic in the late Roman republic era 100BC. His works on philosophy, rhetoric and general cultural humanism rediscovered in the middle ages were one of the key ingredients for the Renaissance in Europe..
Since, we never really had a house which we could call our own... living in rented houses - I never really got the time and energy to grow a garden. I never had a way prove if Cicero was right. Two things changed that over the past year - 1) Buying a house 2) Getting the drive to do something useful.... especially, when you don't have anywhere to go through the week - for many, many weeks. Painful weekends with no activity.
Yours truly can safely confirm, that, what Cicero said long ago is 100% true. A library was my prized possession - having always treasured the fact that learning.. is a lifelong pursuit. Garden, on the other hand - usually, was restricted to some potted plants in balcony (that typically, struggled for life... with limited sunlight, and as I realize now, some over-watering).
Anyway, coming back to the Garden. Gardening is truly a pleasurable and a learning experience. Gardens are truly a representation of paradise on earth. Paradise, by the way, comes from the Persian word - "Paradizia", which essentially refers to the mythical walled garden during the classical, Achaemenid times.
Here are my learnings from growing and maintaining a garden -
- Sunlight, water and nutrition - are the three most important ingredients - 95% of the equation of life
- There is magic in life - when you create the environment - all sorts of life comes in..
- Beetles, song-birds, spiders, all sorts of insects and butterflies find their way - all they need is food to eat
- We had song-birds - pair of nightingale, lay eggs in their nest in our garden.. what a beauty... A thing of beauty is, indeed, a joy forever
- Opportunity and environment comes first. Performance comes with opportunity (that's a big lesson for me)
- What you sow - is truly, what you reap.. effort comes before result. Always. 100%
- Same plants can grow differently depending on what ingredients you provide - one can turn into a bonsai, and the other into a larger plant (I am trying my hand at creating bonsai's - if you want to learn - Ayan's a great coach)
- Anyway, there are no shortcuts - if you plant fruit trees - they take a year to give first fruits. No way on earth - can they bloom faster.. just because... 'you' provide extra nutrition
- There is no way around waiting. Once the environment is right, nutrition is right - you need tons of patience. Just because its your garden... the plants don't bloom faster
Anyway, let me come back to the other theme I want to touch upon today. The last 6 months has busted some stories, which I think, we are used to.
We tell a lot of stories to ourselves. We need $x million..., kids are costly..., social life is super critical..., Govt has the power.., authorities know better than common man (especially this is untrue..), remote work is not possible.., yadi yadi..
Most things are untrue. Man is a very adjustable animal. Technology can change things very, very fast. Much more than we can imagine. Amazon can take over the whole of retail - hell, they just did. In 6 months. Boom.
If its not for technology.. we are all monkeys playing around. Technology will change the world. Old business models need to give way to new. Moats can evaporate. Just like that. Be careful, what you think are the worst case situations, or the best case. Is it really that?
Be careful of the stories we keep telling ourselves. Some learnings for life, living through Covid-19 times:
- Most things, which we are used to collecting: hoarding money, things we need, etc are more than sufficient to lead a good life. We over-estimate what we need
- 5 pairs of clothes are more than sufficient. So, too with shoes
- Home food is good. Eating at home, 7 days a week is totally fine...
- Pareto rule - 80% of the things that matter, take up 20% of time.... is 100% true. It is important we do that 20% though
- Kids don't need too many toys. They need our time
- Clarity of mind is very important. Sometimes, work from home - becomes 90% work, 10% home. Balance is important, we need to find our balance
- If you spend sometime on what you truly, truly want - world conspires to assist you
- Helping others, gives you immense satisfaction - you have to try that often, very often
I hope, you are encouraged to create your own garden. Always be clear of the stories you tell yourself. They are truly powerful, as mostly; we believe in them. What we truly believe - we have the power to make it happen.
