Comfortable in Your Own Skin

Recently while I was having lunch with a friend of mine, I realized just how rich our conversation was thanks to a technology-free atmosphere.  A couple of hours of unfiltered and trusted sharing made me think about what it means to be comfortable in one’s own skin.

As we talked about our different experiences with open hearts, a sense of humility and peace washed over me. Within each of us is an inner well of strength that gives us the courage to go forward with the unspoken certainty that tomorrow will shine a brighter light of hope.

Our inner well of peace is always full, ready to refresh our souls at any time of need and yet how little we turn to it, choosing, instead, to turn outward for answers to some of life’s challenges.  Why?

With this question in my head, I knew it was time for me to go to one of my favorite places to think. I started on a walk through the garden and found an area that was in need of a little trimming and weeding. With shovel and shears, I began to work away.  The garden is my place to harness that inner well.  The garden allows me to refresh my soul, contemplate my thoughts, and clear my mind as I dig and prune in preparation for another burst of growth. 

The different seasons of the garden teach me how to continually prepare my heart to walk with humility and understanding that there is something greater than me. The more I understand this gift of grace, the more I am able to grow comfortable in my own skin and be at peace. The strength of a humble heart allows me to flourish like a bountiful garden through the seasons of life. And maybe, it is this gift from above is what fills our wells effortlessly and endlessly.

Recipe for Life

Fill your well with a dash of quiet time, much love and daily nurturing to refresh your soul.

Tap your inner well often, it is your greatest source of strength.

What Does Growing Mean?

The garden in summer reminds me just how much we focus on growing in our own lives, growing in age, growing in knowledge, growing in our careers, growing our talents, growing our relationships, growing our dreams, growing our families …I can go on and on. We put so much emphasis on growth yet rarely do we talk about how to prepare for and maintain growth in our lives.

Like a garden, our lives grow through seasons. We, too, experience bursts of energy and growth along with other seasons that are slow and almost dormant. In periods of growth, we must remember the role of the gardener and prune the excess and old limbs to make way for new growth, opportunities and thoughts. A strong, rooted foundation withstands unexpected weather or challenges that may come our way as we are growing.

During the seasons of growth in my life, I am often reminded of the biblical parables and historic references to sowing seeds.  When one’s life is rooted, an abundance of joy is present throughout the journey.

How are you growing your life today? Are you stretching and straining with too much noise and busyness? Are you giving yourself time to rest and to ‘just be’ for a season? Are you pruning out the unnecessary old ways to provide for a strong foundation and a next season of growth, while allowing the deep roots of your foundation to be maintained to your beliefs?

Take time to reflect upon the season of life you are growing into now.

Welcome Spring!

As we welcome in the Spring season, enjoy new beginnings and appreciate your surroundings!
Have a wonderful and peaceful holiday weekend.
Keep following your heart and living your dreams!

Be A Green Leaf in Drought

There are so many joys I find in gardening: the discovery of life in a new blossom, the first burst of rose buds in the spring, and that grand tree, dormant for winter, finally stretches and releases fresh green leaves. The doves coo in the quiet dawn mornings as the butterflies practice the choreography of the season.

I often write about gardening because it teaches me so much about life.  Most of all, it has taught me to slow down the day and avoid list-making in order to truly take in the moments that nature created for us to enjoy.

Because of my love for gardening,  I have become fascinated with garden stories and metaphors.  Many refer to the garden for cultural significance while others look to the garden for spiritual understanding.

During a recent trip to Asia, I became fascinated with the green leaf. Its design was on clothing, jewelry and notebooks. It was everywhere— an icon of new life, good luck and good health.  

When I returned home, I came across a book, Green Leaf in Drought by Isobel Kuhn, a true story about the lives of missionaries who traveled in the most eastern part of China during the early 1950s. It documented their lives and the many trials they faced trying to be "green leaves" during many seasons of drought, loss and sadness.  The story of their lives touched my heart.

We all go through droughts such as loss, uncertainty and sadness during the seasons of life and yet, through these challenging times, there is always hope for newness.

How To Be a Green Leaf in Drought

- Find a time in your day to refill yourself with something you enjoy.

- Play some music, sketch, take a walk, read, putter in the garden, try a new recipe or set some time aside to just sit, be still and breathe.

- Once you refill the soil of your soul, you will discover the newness of life that gives you strength to continue to shine. You will have the strength to continue to grow through all seasons. You are a green leaf.

- Plant a seed of encouragement to help others who may be going through a drought.

Life lessons from the garden

This week, I was thumbing through some of my garden books when I was pulled into a story about the virtues of the gardener who tends to the cyclical unpredictability of the land, season after season.

Yes. A garden instills humility in us -- a deep respect of something greater than ourselves. We learn about the gift of nurturing, tending and caring for others – from the heart. 

The author went on to describe the gardener’s deep inner strength and their wisdom to not only grow a successful and healthy garden but to choose to live a life that is able to find joy in all things.

Life, like the garden, is very unpredictable—yet, we gardeners dig, prune, clean and repeat.  We welcome in the joy of the surprises created in the garden—not by us, but by something greater than us.  Hope and inner strength translate beyond the garden.

One of my favorite lines goes something like this:

I thought by being diligent and dedicated to my work, I was growing my garden, yet I learned that actually my garden was and still is growing me.

I am sure I am not the first person to discover that gardening is a wise window into the mystery of life. And, like many who have come to this conclusion in their higher-learning institute of gardening, we discover how to be joyful through all of the seasons of life.  

Plan, celebrate, reflect -- February is full of surprises!

Sowing Seeds

This weekend in my garden, I found myself welcoming in the burst of spring. The birds and butterflies danced through the flowers and trees, while taking a break, here and there, for some nutriment from seasonal delights.  As I worked my way through the garden – pruning, feeding, spraying and cleaning out some of the beds – during each stop at a different section of the garden, I found myself thinking about the phrase, “sowing seeds.” I was preparing a garden bed for some new small plants—plants that I would feed, water and nurture to help them blossom and flourish to their greatest capacity. I thought about how the phrase is used with so many contexts in our lives, from gardening, of course, to biblical scriptures, business investing and ways to describe human interaction with marriage, family and friends.

As I continued to work my way through my garden chores feeling a little thirsty from the physical exercise of trimming, I started to think that this simple sounding phrase of sowing seeds is really about all aspects of life.  I realized that when one is sowing seeds, one must be willing to have patience, which we learn from the seasons of the garden and nature’s way—nothing is the same and the weather is often unpredictable.

We must be willing to trust our instinct and believe in what we are doing.  Whether it is in a relationship, a job or a hobby, we must be willing to spend the time to nurture and grow that relationship or idea with love and compassion in order to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor. And like the seasons of the garden, we must be willing to have peace in understanding that our lives, ideas and situations are always changing.

So as I dusted off the dirt, which I usually find myself in from head to toe after a day in garden, I looked around with such joy and a thankful heart for all that God has created for us to enjoy.

I realize that if we are willing to spend the time to sow seeds with patience, trust, peace, love and compassion, our journey through life will be a lot more bountiful and full of garden surprises…