Lessons from a raspberry plant
Reflections on divergence, perseverance, and perspective
Every year we choose a project around the house. Something to improve or that needs fixing. Last year we renovated the shed with great success. But this year we were more doubtful. We weren’t really sure if the project we had postponed for years was worth our time and money. Restructuring our garden just didn’t seem worth it, but I was wrong. It turned out to be a good investment and it all began with what seemed like a dead plant.
The raspberry plant that wouldn’t grow, cultivated reflective ideas. Lessons that turned out to be quite valuable. It reminds me that even a tiny raspberry plant could be a wonderful teacher to those who keep an open mind.
I share with you my reflections on the careful examination of the raspberry plant.
The raspberry plants
We decided to buy two raspberry plants to cover the area we selected. Both looked like nothing more than a dead stick with a clump of dirt at the bottom (I’d almost given them back to the delivery guy).
I decided to plant them a meter apart just see what would happen. After a day, nothing. A week later, nothing still. After two weeks, the raspberry sapling on the right showed some green leaves. The one on the left did not. I waited another week and while the one on the right was growing strong, the left was still just a dead branch. It did nothing.
My wife opted to remove the dead stick. And I would have agreed with her, but a tiny fraction of hope remained:
A part of me wanted to see if it was really dead or just appeared to be. And so we stuck with it, watering it every day.
A few weeks later, about two months in, I walked into the garden and noticed the tiniest of leaves coming through the dirt. A tiny sapling had finally grown. It was a moment I cherished.
The tiny raspberry was nowhere near being a bush, but something beautiful had started. Though it will not bear fruit this year, I did get to harvest some wonderful ideas.
Lessons learned
The lessons I learned from dead wood:
- Not all things grow at the same rate.
- Don’t stop believing.
- Below certain levels, development is unknown.
1. Not all things grow at the same rate
Whether it was the ground, the micro-climate, the attention it had gotten, the sapling not having strong roots or a mix of these factors. The plant didn’t grow as quickly as we hoped it would.
No two things are alike. And so it is with ideas we pursue and people we support. It requires patience and attention to help individuals be who they are. So too with ideas. Sit with your ideas, give them attention, let it sprout into something great and grow strong roots.
Too often we view them as dead branches. But they need water, they need time. They need the right environment to flourish. Remember:
Not all things grow at the same rate
2. Don’t stop believing
When things go exactly as you planned (like the raspberry bush on the right) it’s easy to rejoice. But sometimes they don’t turn out as you wanted to. In these situations it’s easy to give up, to stop paying attention or to remove the stick with full force.
Sometimes we act on our fellow humans in the same way. We give up on them, stop paying attention to them or even remove them. Ideas and projects are often treated the same.
This is the easy way. Continuing and persevering. That’s hard work. But the results can be astonishing:
“Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.” — Booker T. Washington
Place responsibility and trust in individuals, projects and (your) ideas. It will help them grow. Or perhaps easier to remember, in the words of the American rock band Journey:
Don’t stop believing
3. Below certain levels, development is unknown
You can’t always see what happens beneath the surface. Had I removed the branch before it escaped the dirt, I might have discovered the hard way that the plant was actually growing all along. By removing it, I would have probably destroyed it forever.
In life, knowing when to quit is often a hard choice to make. We don’t have all the information, so quitting is based on a moment in time. It’s easy to form an opinion, but it’s hard to form the best opinion if you don’t have all the information or the right perspective.
You may look at the ground and see that nothing is happening. You might look at an idea and feel like it’s flat, unworthy of pursuance. In the same manner, you can look at someone’s face without seeing the full depth of their personality.
Below certain levels, development is unknown
Some projects take more time to develop, some people are slow learners. Slow isn’t always bad. Slow can still be fruitful and productive. Knowing when to give up is always a matter of perspective.
Be fruitful
In life, we are often the sapling as well as the gardener. If you want to be treated with attention, love, and patience, be sure to give your piece of attention, love, and patience to others. It shows good character to accept that (1) not all people, ideas and products grow at the same rate (2) that you nonetheless still believe in them because (3) you never know when they will emerge from the ground. Just like a tiny raspberry sapling.
Did you like this short story? You might also like my parable about the small rocks and big rocks
