Garden as Metaphor: Everything’s Bigger in Texas

Part I – Garden as Metaphor Series …

Growing things fascinates me. Put a seed in the ground, give it a little water, a little sun and voila! You (usually) get a plant that offers great value – well beyond the small seed that was planted.

Being raised on a farm let me see this process in an up close and personal way. Our family’s annual income was tied to my father’s seasonal efforts of planting, tending and harvesting.

One summer, he and my mother decided that my sister and I could benefit from caring for a garden. In typical “Everything’s Bigger in Texas” fashion, my dad helped out by planting the corn with his tractor. It didn’t take very long in his enormous tractor to plant 18 rows of corn that were each about ¼-mile long.

So far, so good. Until my sister and I discovered that every morning, we’d be expected to grab our hoes and weed those 18 rows, along with about six more rows of okra, cucumbers, watermelon and other produce.

It felt like child labor at the time, but looking back, that garden has proven to be a metaphor for almost every life event, every business challenge, every turn of fate.

Improving the health of a community is very much like tending a garden. In future blog posts, we’ll explore the whole process from planting to harvest as it applies to cultivating the health of your community. Stay tuned!

If you are interested in discussing how a Community Health Needs Assessment and related planning activities can help your organization make a greater impact, please contact Mary Coyne at (806) 670-7440 or Mary@AscentHealthConsulting.com.