The garden in your head

Victor Hugo wrote your mind is a garden. He described reading or writing as "doing some digging".

I like this notion. Expanding on it a bit - (I shall try and not take the analogy too far) - I think there is real pleasure - indeed joy, happiness and many other emotions to be gained from planting seeds in your mind, cultivating them and feeling them grow and develop.

Some people seem to have rather a barren garden. Very little interests them - they don't plant many seeds, don't invest much time or effort nurturing them and as a consequence there is little to bring them joy.

Some people plant just one seed and become obsessed with its care and development in a bonsai sort of way.Their joy lies in their focus.

Some like me have a  cottage garden going on in their mind - seeds planted everywhere - going in all directions. The garden can be all consuming - always needs a bit of tidying - but provides a constant source of mind food, perfume and pleasure. There are always new seeds to plant - ha!

More recently I have thought perhaps my cottage garden needs a bit more focus - maybe try and grow a few specimen plants - we shall see!

A final thought and dropping the garden analogy (work out how it fits in yourself!) - the more you know about something - generally the more interesting it becomes. I have just re watched Andy Murray's 2013 Wimbledon final triumph. Taken on its own a great match. However if you knew the journey he had been on to get there - right from the Dunblane massacre day - the sacrifices he had made - the desperate close losses and setbacks - the negative press he had suffered - the pressure he was under - the amazing guts and humility he showed - then it becomes not just a great match but something incredibly moving and wonderful and probably the greatest moment in sport ever. (he writes with a tear in his eye - the silly old fool!)