I love to take photographs on my allotment – of the colours, the plant combinations, the skies, the different times of day or the unfolding seasons. Usually I try to find the best position to get the most attractive picture which, on an allotment, is quite hard as there are bright blue water butts, plastic polytunnels, bird scarers and various paraphanelia which always intrude in the picture.
Today I was working on the ‘utility’ area, around some new compost bins I have recently made from old pallets and which has been covered in nettles, thistles and raspberry suckers since I took over the plot a year and a half ago. I decided to tackle it head on, which meant pulling out enormous nettle roots that had been developing for years. At some point I became so exhausted that I thought I’d stop digging and pulling and try working with a trowel whilst sitting on the ground…
And it was this view that really struck me. The beautifully presented colourful scene contrasting with the mass of ugly roots and rotting carpet. Side by side. One to be shown off, the other obscured.
I saw how easy it is to hide behind a mask, a facade, an appearance that everything is OK and acceptable, beautiful even.
To ignore what may be going on under the surface.
And to see it as negative, or wrong, or weak. And unacceptable.
By doing this we prevent others from admitting or acknowledging that their lives are far from perfect, that they have ‘flaws’ too. And by covering up these parts of ourselves, by judging ourselves as wrong or broken and needing to be fixed, we continue to deny the darker side of life, a side which holds its own perfections, lessons, learnings.
And its own beauty – in the form of vulnerability, rawness, honesty. To ourselves and to those around us.
There is much more to be said about accepting the parts of ourselves that have been kept in the dark, like prisoners held captive in the cellar. But for today I just wanted to highlight the fact that these parts co-exist, and that they are all both valid and of equal value.
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