Words of Wisdom

Dear Grads,

I ran Botanical Interests seed packet company for nearly 30 years. Botanical humor flourished in our office and much of it was as profound as it was hilarious. This is your time to sink your roots into the ground, branch out and bloom. You are the gardener now. Design something amazing, sow tomorrow's joy today and remember that there are seasons in the garden and that the garden is always growing and changing. You are the creator now and you have superpowers. While hiring and creating healthy teams I realized that most people don’t realize that they bring superpowers with them to the team nor do they understand how their quirks are often their best attributes: their superpowers!

Botanical humor really does grow on you. A joke I would often use was when someone asked me if I knew what the botanical name of something was, I’d say (quickly and with some confidence) “that is a ‘damn-if-I-know-variegate’”. Very few people would get the joke at first. If said without humor and if not immediately followed up with a sincere concession of ignorance to the correct answer, it just becomes a lie. Lies we tell others, the ones we tell ourselves, and the false beliefs we carry, are the weeds we introduce into our garden. They may seem innocent enough at first, but weeds get out of hand quickly. They will choke out your favorite flowers and steal nutrients from everything around it. You can put on your gloves and pull out the weeds to put your garden back in order, but it is so much better to just keep the weeds out of your garden in the first place. ‘Nip it in the bud’ as they say. So much time is needed to correct a weedy flower bed vs never introducing weeds in the first place. Find your weeds and toss them on the compost pile.

Have you ever noticed that when you first meet someone you have an immediate gut feeling of whether you want to open your garden gate and let them in your front yard? Trust your gut. They may be an invasive species that you don’t even want on the lawn! But if you do let them in and all goes well you may want to let them sit on the front porch with you for a spell. If you find that they throw too much shade on you and are trying to sell you weed seeds, I suggest you walk them back to the front gate, thank them for the visit, step into the sun, and appreciate the garden you are protecting by sending them on their way. Should you find their honesty, character and integrity inspiring to you, you may want to invite them into the back yard to share your struggles with that dang climbing rose that gets out of hand occasionally. After further time, the confirmation of their integrity will foster a respect that will allow you the comfort to share your secrets to growing tomatoes and the best places to get good mulch. You will probably find that this is a smaller group of people than you’d expect. Cherish these people who reciprocate your respect, hold you to your gardening ethics, warn you of encroaching weeds and invasive species and give you the sunshine needed to blossom. Call these people your friends.

Do you know what your superpower is? You may not be an expert at anything quite yet, but you do have a superpower! What do you say, ‘That’s easy, anyone can do that!’ to? If you tell me drawing is easy, you haven’t seen my sad attempts at drawing stick figures. What are the things that just make sense to you? Can you read a balance sheet like a novel or, can you convince a tangle of kids that reading and doing math problems is a good idea? That is a superpower. Your superpower may even be your oddest quirk. Do you like all the details wrapped up in tidy rows or are you someone who goes with the flow? That is a superpower. Not everyone is good at detail work and perfectionists rarely make great artists. Embrace your superpower. It is a personal brand of fertilizer you get to share. Let it send you down a path. If you are finding that nothing on that path is going your way; you aren’t catching any breaks and that it all seems excessively hard, you may want to consider that you took a left instead of a right somewhere along the way and that you are no longer on the right path. That is ok. It is as important to make mistakes and discover what you don’t like, as much as it is to figure out what you do like. So, that terrible manager you are going to work for at some point in your life, be prepared to graciously thank them for an educational experience, learn what you didn’t like, how you would do that job better if you were in their shoes, or learn that you never want to be in their shoes and move on.

Always remember, you are growing into the person you want to be when you are 92! Be intentional with your garden design. Fill it with your favorite trees, fabulous foundation shrubs, beautiful flowers and keep out the weeds. Make mistakes without regret as you define and appreciate what you have done well in your ever evolving garden. You are the gardener, take time to smell the flowers and sow tomorrow’s joyful harvest every day.

Wishing you a beautiful garden,

Judy Seaborn