Tolerate

April 23, 2021

While I was worried about my vegetables and Melissa’s succulents, I did not take much thought for the other species planted in our yard.  Most had been planted by Melissa’s mom and had been surviving on their own for the last five years at least.  They had done well to tolerate their neglect.  I realize I need to begin to take care of them or they will get to the point where I will need to treat them like the front rose bushes and tear them out.  When I came out the morning after the refreeze, I was surprised to see the flowers on the Clematis were in full bloom.  Melissa tells me there are some species that need a frost to shock them into blooming.  This appears to be one.

The two clematis which had bloomed were both the Clematis President variety.  The genus name Clematis is from the Ancient Greek klematis, (“a climbing plant”) and is also translated as “twig, sprout, or tendril”.  Over 250 species and cultivars are known, often named for their originators or by a particular characteristic of the plant.  Clematis is a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae).  The Clematis genus are mainly of Chinese and Japanese origin.  The garden hybrids have been popular among gardeners since 1862.  This began with the Clematis jackmanii, and more hybrid cultivars are constantly being produced.  Their popularity comes from their ability to tolerate a variety of weather and soil conditions.

In Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he presented a four box matrix of how people allot time to the projects in their life.  The matrix included categories of important, unimportant, urgent, and non-urgent.  What he found was most spend 80% of their time on things that are not urgent and not important (the 80/20 Rule), making them the opposite of highly effective.  The reason for this comes from the fact that this is the easy stuff, and they perceive they are “getting things done.”  The hard stuff is often things that are urgent and important.  Covey’s suggestion is to put most of your time on things that are non-urgent and important.   Many would rather tolerate the specter of failure rather than do what needs to be done.

Thoughts:  I have been putting off my projects to rebuild my planters on the back patio (important and non-urgent).  Now it needs to happen before I can plant the rest of my vegetables and the status has shifted (important and urgent).  I could have done this over the four months when I had time, but I choose to tolerate the jumbled mess I left on the patio.  We are in the same situation in our country.  We had over 400 years to make the changes that were important concerning race, but they were not seen to be urgent.  We need to identify anti-racism as important and urgent, and then do what needs to be done to make a difference.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.