Book excerpt: Gardens and gardening are analogues and metaphors for life and death, beginnings and ends. There is a ground in which our seeds are sown. There is the daily nurturing of water, food, care, and love. There are the chronic dangers of disease, insects, disaster, disregard, and drought. There is a harvest of food and beauty. And ultimately there is the season's change, a withering and passing of all that is beautiful and good. And then, a return back to the ground from which it all arose in its time. From which we all arose in our time. What better teacher than the garden? Its seasons, its demands, its lessons, its rewards.