GARDEN IN WINTER CAN TEACH LIFE LESSONS.

Byline: JANE GATES Gardening

SANTA CLARITA - As we end the memorable year of 2001, we can look back at what has worked and what hasn't in our gardens, lives and in the world.

We can be filled with regret, disappointment and even anger at some events, or we can learn, do better and move forward with greater wisdom.

Our gardens are microcosms of life and we can grow with them. It is winter and this is the time to rest and regenerate. Sadly, many of the weak are culled in the winter, but that makes room for the new. Nature is not always kind, nor are we humans.

But all living things have awesome powers of healing and adaptation. Trees, bushes and many perennials will grow stronger and healthier with proper pruning, especially at this time of year when sap moves slowly so injury is minimized.

We, too, can guide our growth. We can sink into dejection over our injuries from friends, family or worldwide events, focusing on our hurt or revenge. Or we can do what the denizens of our gardens can't: we can choose. We can choose be bigger than our mistakes and those of others. We can be aware that we are all a part of a bigger picture that is interdependent in so many ways.

Even as the soil, plants, water and pollinators work together to create our gardens, so we humans work together to created our present and our future. It's easy to think of the disease as being the plant or the behavior as being the person.

We can work to cure the plant of the disease so we can keep it in our garden, and we can forgive the behaviors of loved ones to keep them in our lives. Holiday get-togethers can actually be a great opportunity to heal.

Winter is a good time to clean up all the dead leaves and rubbish blown into the garden. It's also a good time to gently clean up the trash that gets into our relationships. On Sept. 11, we had a chance to re-evaluate many of our priorities. We got to experience the hurt and damage other hurt and damaged people can inflict as a result of their vengeful anger, self- righteousness and separation. We can turn around and inflict more of the same, or we can try something else that might work better.

And finally, we can chose to focus on all the miraculous things that happened in 2001 so we can cultivate those seeds and watch them grow in 2002. Births and healing, successes and discoveries, kindness and new loving relationships blossomed this past year. Heroes triumphed in unexpected stories. And gardens produced beauty, joy and food all over the world.

It is a time to think about peace and good will to men no matter what your faith may be. It is a time for New Year's resolutions. Maybe in this new year we can resolve to listen as much as we talk, to forgive a little more often than criticize, to take responsibility for the seeds we plant, yet allow each person the gift of his or her own growth. Maybe, having seen what doesn't work, we can try giving up the need to be right in exchange for doing what works. And maybe we can learn from our gardens and begin to grow in harmony - just a little more each new year.