I was raised to believe that good things come to those who wait, patiently, for our hopes and dreams to play out in their own time. Patience is a component of confidence, confidence that the world is as it should be, and that things will work out. My dad had already learned this lesson by the time I came along. He was the quiet, confident one who “lived by faith, and with thanksgiving.” Now that he has passed, I’m still learning the depth and wisdom of this life philosophy from him.

Impatience doesn’t make anything better, does it? And we can create a lot of stress for ourselves and everyone around us. Patience may feel passive at the time, like a surrender or an abandonment of our goals. But perhaps that is the point. Maybe surrendering to the wisdom of the Universe, and detaching ourselves from the nuts and bolts of how our dreams manifest themselves, is a key to happiness and success.

Larry Gottlieb makes an interesting observation in his book, The Seer’s Explanation, that trying to change the world is like looking at your own reflection in a mirror, seeing a blemish on your face and dabbing a bit of make-up on the mirror. It doesn’t fix anything. Gottlieb’s subtitle is, “The World Out There Isn’t What You Think It is.” Since Larry is a physicist, as well as a musician, engineer, mystic and highly successful businessman, he does a very good job of making his point about the world reflecting back to us what we expect.

Our gardens reflect back to us what we expect, too. It just may take some time for it to happen, and we all know that we have to wait, patiently and attentively for our visions to come to fruition.

I wanted some native holly trees, a few years back, to add to an installation I was working on for our neighborhood. You can’t buy native holly trees, Ilex opaca, of any size in our area. I asked friends with large, wooded yards about whether they had any native holly seedlings they could give me. Crickets. We ended up purchasing some hybrid holly trees, and the project looked great.

Within two to three years, I discovered little native holly trees coming up everywhere in my own yard. There are a bunch of hybrids hollies, some with beautiful leaves, cropping up among the perennials, too. The Universe heard my request for holly tree seedlings and responded, in her own time. We will have a lovely holly forest growing around our dogwoods and oaks.

This has been a very challenging year for gardeners for so many reasons. Our heat finally broke earlier this week, and we are enjoying some cooler days. We had a bit of rain. I finally ordered the concrete blocks and gravel and topsoil needed to fix an area of erosion and continue work on the newest fern garden. The upper garden is filled with flowers at last.

The ancients tell us that all creation begins with an idea. We envision what we want to see manifest. Maybe we need to do something to help it along. Maybe it will come together without our forcing the issue, and maybe when we least expect it. Seeing the Butterfly Gaura bloom on the front patio this week was proof that no matter how hard we may try to force the issue, nature takes her own course.

Gaura has always been easy to keep in bloom here. I’ve grown it for the past four or five summers, propagated it from a stem stuck in a pot of moist soil, and generally just loved having it for its delicate flowers. I bought a few new plants this year to grow it in new areas. And it has sulked for months. Water, feeding, attention to light and air circulation kept the plants healthy, but they didn’t bloom; until September brought cooler temperatures and cleaner air.

The season has turned towards autumn here. The garden looks more vibrant than tired and worn-out, at last. I am off to spread some gravel and mulch, watch the hummingbirds feed, pull some weeds, count the butterflies, and generally give thanks for all of the beauty that surrounds us.

With appreciation to Jim Stephens of Garden Ruminations, who hosts Six on Saturday each week.

You might enjoy my series of posts, Plants I Love That Deer Ignore