How does YOUR garden grow?

It's been one of those weeks when my proverbial garden is not being tended. I am feeling guilty, tired, impatient, faithless, anxious, inadequate. I thought of a poem that my parents had posted on their refrigerator years ago. I don't know who put it there or why. I know it impacted me though, because I was able to google it by typing in the fifth line. 20 years later, I remembered that "when care is pressing you down a bit - rest if you must." Whoever is reading, I offer you this garden tending.

Don't Quit
by Edgar A. Guest

"When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
when the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
when the funds are low and the debts are high,
and you want to smile but you have to sigh,
when care is pressing you down a bit - rest if you must,
but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns.
As everyone of us sometimes learns.
And many a fellow turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow - you may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than it seems to a faint and faltering man;
often the struggler has given up when he might have captured the victor's cup;
and he learned too late when the night came down,
how close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out - the silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
and when you never can tell how close you are,
it may be near when it seems afar;
so stick to the fight when you're hardest hit - it's when things seem worst,
you must not quit."