Self-Renewal and the "Total Garden" concept

"Total garden" is a metaphor coined by John W. Gardner in his work Self-Renewal (1965) to describe an ever-renewing, adaptable society. Instead of viewing life or society as a single, linear life span (seedling, flower, death), the "total garden" represents a balanced, evolving ecosystem where some things are dying while others are flourishing, allowing the system itself to live on."

We are born to learn and grow! Self-Renewal is always possible and the "Total Garden" concept applied.

According to Gardner, ""Exploration of the full range of our own potentialities is not something that we can safely leave to the chances of life. It is something to be pursued avidly to the end of our days. We should look forward to an endless and unpredictable dialogue between our own potentialities and the claims of life -- not only the claims we encounter, but the claims we invent. And by potentialities I mean not just skills, but the full range of our capacities for sensing, wondering, learning, understanding, loving, and aspiring...

"Our thinking about growth and decay is dominated by the image of a single life-span, animal or vegetable. Seedling, full flower, and death...But for an ever-renewing society, the appropriate image is a total garden, a balanced aquarium or other ecological system. Some things are being born, other things are flourishing, still other things are dying -- but the system lives on."