The garden has taught me to live, to appreciate the times when things are fallow and when they're not.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of patience and appreciation for both the fruitful and barren periods in life.
In this quote, Jamaica Kincaid reflects on the lessons learned from gardening, illustrating the importance of recognizing and valuing the different phases of life. Just as a garden goes through cycles of growth and dormancy, so too do our lives, teaching us to embrace moments of inactivity alongside moments of abundance and productivity.
In practice
In a speech about personal growth, one could say, 'As Jamaica Kincaid noted, the garden has taught us to appreciate both our fruitful and fallow times in life.'
Something settiled inside me, something heavy and hard. It stayed there, and i could not think of one thing to make it go away. I thought, So this must be living, this must be the beginning of the time people later refer to as 'years ago, when I was young'.
Gardeners (or just plain simple writers who write about the garden) always have something they like intensely and in particular, right at the moment you engage them in the reality of the borders they cultivate, the space in the garden they occupy at any moment, they like in particular this, or they like in particular that.
I read about writers who have routines. They write at certain times of the day. I can't do that. I am always writing-but in my head.
I have no credentials. I have no money. I literally come from a poor place. I was a servant. I dropped out of college. The next thing you know I'm writing for the 'New Yorker,' I have this sort of life, and it must seem annoying to people.
I didn't think of myself as an outsider because of my race because... where I grew up I was the same race as almost everyone else... It is true that I noticed things that no one else seemed to notice. And I think only people who are outsiders do this.
I come from a little island with the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. I come from, really, nowhere, and for me, the fiction and the nonfiction, creative or otherwise, all come from the same place.
Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.
One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.
To plant trees is to give body and life to one's dreams of a better world.
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape. Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn't show.
Devising a vocabulary for gardening is like devising a vocabulary for sex. There are the correct Latin names, but most people invent euphemisms. Those who refer to plants by Latin name are considered more expert, if a little pedantic.
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