I like gardening. — Sophie Okonedo

I like gardening.

Author: Sophie Okonedo

Insight: There's something almost radical about gardening in a world that rewards speed and productivity. You can't rush a tomato plant or convince a seed to sprout faster through sheer willpower. Gardening forces you to slow down, to show up repeatedly, to accept that some things simply take time. In a life filled with instant notifications and same-day delivery, that rhythm feels increasingly countercultural. What makes gardening stick with people, though, is something deeper than relaxation. It's agency. You're not passively consuming; you're actively creating the conditions for life to happen. You decide what gets planted, when to water, how to respond when pests arrive or frost threatens. There's real problem-solving involved, real stakes, and real reward. That tangible feedback—watching something you tended become food or beauty—is something most of our digital lives can't quite replicate. The other thing people don't always expect: gardening teaches you to make peace with imperfection and failure. Some years the harvest is thin. Some plants never stood a chance. You don't get to blame anyone but yourself or bad luck, and somehow that honesty is clarifying. You learn what you can control and what you can't, and you keep showing up anyway. That's not just good gardening. That's pretty good living.