Gardening and Narrative Arc

Sophie and I spent a full day gardening. Here she is digging a hole in which to plant the French pink pussy willow tree that was loaded with plumb catkins (in the foreground). As always, my various writing projects were subminally at work in my mind. Also consciously gardening reminds me of writing--designing, digging, planting, tending, anticipating, and the arc of the seasons. The narrative arc for Stirring Up the World: Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, A Biography of a Powerful Friendship is divided into Part I and II: intimacy, adversity, friction, renewal, distance, heartbreak. Part III is: the story continues. That narrative arc could sort of describe gardening too, couldn't it.