Sunday Scribblings: The Plan
I am hopelessly plan proof. The best way to insure a plan won’t get follow through is to write it down and plan on it. But if I keep a secret from myself, hide it in my subconscious and let it find an organic path to fruition, I can realize a goal. I don’t understand this side of myself, but I am learning to live with it. I wrote the following scribbling right around the time I decided to make peace with my planlessness.
Siletz Bay wildflowers montage with a beautiful Oregon sunset by ComputerMiracle
I envy the beauty of a formal garden.
I imagine appearing neatly clipped, colors coordinated.
What a wonderful thing it would be to think in tidy paths
that take me past each important element.
All my blooms would open at the proper time,
in proper order, and in their proper place.
All would arrange themselves around an exquisite centerpiece
of good sense and logic.
I’m more like a tangled wood,
honeysuckle vines and thorned blackberries marking my borders,
tiny violets hiding in my shadows.
I’m a web of branches and green growth,
reaching for sun and sky by day,
moon and stars by night.
My roots burrow into a rich carpet,
hidden things that feed the growth.
At my center — a twisting, babbling stream of moods,
ideas, desires, and dreams.
I envy the order of a formal garden, but my soul knows it could never grow there.
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20 Comments
The Dark Lord
Excellent post! You use such perfect and graceful imagery… Bravo!
Jim
Nara, I like this. I feel for you but I think it is best. I'm that way in a way. You have more freedom. I always have "Plan B" but never really do I have a "Plan A."
Do you read about those nice gardens? I read a lot about the two things I would like to do a lot of, ham radio and old Fords. I have the equipment for each but neither is in operation. I just read about them. 🙂
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Tammie
wonderfully fantastic and sweetly honest.
Dee
I truly love this. It seems to me that we spend a lot of our lives trying to tidy up our lives and miss some of the beauty that wants to flourish if we allow it to. I'm not against a bit of order – just seems our efforts are usually misdirected. I might want to visit the formal garden occasionally but I would rather live in yours 🙂
Susan Helene Gottfried
I'm exactly the same way. In fact, the more my suburban yard grows and becomes lush and even a little wild, the happier I am.
Linda may
I love this post Nara. But I don't agree with your envy of the formal garden. I like the randomness of then other garden you describe. It is more an analogy of real life to me.
I love a rambling cottage garden and the beauty of nature rather than the formally planned type. If I see things so tidily done I have an urge to mess it up because it annoys me.
Fledgling Poet
This was absolutely beautiful…I've always been envious of those with formal gardens. I do try to plan, but it seems I always have overgrowth and weeds to pull. :~)
quin browne
i'm an english garden myself…
Celine
This is lovely poetry. Thank you for sharing.
Just a few posts back, I have written about my love for wildflowers that matches with this theme.
Whitesnake
Spontaneous ………hmmm
Order is fine in moderation……. bit like ordering dinner…can I have fries with that?
stan
Discipline is important – but we all have our own way of interpreting it.
Tumblewords
I love the visuals, the perfect imagery that leaves nothing to chance yet provides little in the way of the joy of serendipity! A beautifully written poem!
nonizamboni
This was a lovely take on plan-lessness. . . your 'organic path to fruition.'
And you've shown your beauty without a plan. Nicely done!
floreta
ooooh this is BEAUTIFUL. you've made this sense of 'planning' sound really nice and romantic. i think i am more like this kind of planner and am now proud of that!
anthonynorth
I'm a great believer that too much order is boring. I'm not sure we're supposed to achieve it.
Great words.
AD
this is truly WOW
The Bigger Plan
naramalone
Thanks everyone. I was surprised to discover so many like myself among the scribblers.
Old Grizz
I eally like this one. It has truth, honesty and self knowledge. It is beautifully written,
It brings to mind "to thine own self be true"
I cannot remember the author of that quote, maybe from Shakespeare. Your "plan" is the best of all
BJ
I also envy order, yet enjoy my chaotic life. Well written!
Serena
Excellent post, Nara! I know what you mean about envying the order of a formal garden…the concept is lovely, but the execution, far from my grasp as well.