Hi Galen, I find the metaphor of the garden with life very apt. I think with age we appear to be less structured, although I think that like good musicians, the structure is internalized. So when they improvise, they do it without getting lost, with meaning.
As for plants, I don't have a garden, but I can say that there is a plant that has been with me for almost three decades, a cactus, which I take care of and in my own way it takes care of me.
Happy days off.
I think choosing to be less structured in life is a structure of sorts anyway, a process of thought, only that it is based around one's own experiences throughout life and how they have changed what we value most.
I think we are talking about the same thing, that the experience gained gives the opportunity to be more flexible.