Flower OR Power? How Does YOUR Garden Grow? B Y   M A G G I E   G U S E M A N

Close your eyes for a minute and imagine a big, healthy garden. What do you see?

Big, beautiful flowers?
Fresh, juicy fruit?
Crisp, colorful vegetables?
Spiders?
Weeds?

If we look throughout nature, we see that there are some not-so-attractive or even frightening things that are actually very important. Flowers need pollination from cranky bees. Fruits and vegetables wouldn't make it to our plates unless spiders ate up all the destructive bugs. Some plants even act as bodyguards to protect other plants from insect invasions! So why do we kill spiders and tear out plants we don't want?

It's because human beings garden treat the environment in ways that only serve us. We keep the things we like and trash the things we don't, even if the bad things are actually very good. We think that a beautiful garden is the sign of a healthy garden.

Life just isn't that simple.

On the physical level, we all can't be fresh, dewy roses or bright-eyed daises. Some of us are plainer, like an ivy, or unusual, like a cactus. Unfortunately, we have gardeners -- like the media or even each other – that YANK out those plants that aren't thought to be pretty enough or thin enough, or that aren't happy just being a decoration. All that's left is a pile of uprooted, unhappy rejects left to die on the trash heap, or a group of short-rooted blossoms that will join the others in the garbage as soon as they show signs of wilting.

By this logic, the only flower worth having in society's garden is Blossom Barbie!

This goofy gardening also plays out on the psychological level, too. There's a lot of pressure out there to be a Good Girl – a nice little flower that everyone will like and want to have in their vases at home. Being a Good Girl isn't a bad thing IF that's your nature.

But some girls need to push and prod and question to find out who they are. The only things that push and prod around a garden are weeds -- and weeds get the SNIP!

Now, picture the garden we all live in. Are you more like a fair flower or like a wicked weed? How do YOU grow?

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