Daughter of disco icon and Grammy-award winning singer Donna Summer, Brooklyn Sudano grew up in a house with a large garden in Thousand Oaks, where she spent a lot of time outside as a child.
Sudano eventually became an actress and director, most recently co-directing the HBO documentary “Love to Love You, Donna Summer,” about her late mother. Yet, Sudano has continued to return to the garden as a grounding place in her life. Sudano says that by observing nature, she has learned to step back and appreciate the “ebbs and flows” of life.
More: Director Brooklyn Sudano on Donna Summer’s compromises
Note: This interview was completed before the SAG-AFTRA strike.
This segment has been edited for length and clarity.
Some of my deepest lessons come from being outside and gardening, planting a seed, having to water it, [watching] it grow, and understanding that things in life often take time.
So whenever I feel in a rush, where I need to make a decision or do something quickly, and I feel any kind of anxiety creep in, I go outside and I look at the plants. I look at my lemon tree, and I see the different stages of life happening. Whether it is that orange blossom, the little bud of a little lemon, then the green lemon, and then the yellow lemon, and the process in which it takes to become ripe.
I find that nature is often my biggest teacher, and understanding just how the dynamics of life flow at different seasons of life. So whenever I start to feel anxious, I understand that sometimes there are moments for growth. Sometimes there's moments for stillness. Sometimes you have to be cut back. And one of the hardest things is trimming back your beautiful flowers in order for it to blossom more. A lot of times you have to trim the plant down even more.
It's so basic on so many levels, but I often find that it is my greatest reminder when I'm out there, and, to see that, “It is okay whatever stage that you're in, Brooklyn. Yesterday may be a pruning day, but you will spring a new leaf, and from that leaf, you might bear a lot of fruit. But in order to bear that fruit, you do need to prune back.” Sometimes you need to step back and take some hard lumps and learn some lessons, so that you can really be the full blossom that you're meant to be.
