How does your garden grow?
And she answered, “With silver bells and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row”
You’ve heard that nursery rhyme, right? But ask any gardener and the answer will be: So much goes into growing a garden – the seeds, the soil, watering, weeding, nourishing and making sure the sun shines bright. Not always in our hands, some of it, but we do know the effort and the love involved in making that garden bloom.
What if we grew our own inner garden the same way?
What if we treated our goals like the seeds that are planted and nurture them like we do in a garden?
What if we committed to make our dreams a reality?
I ask myself these questions every once in a while and realize that it always begins with me.
I must:
- Believe in my own abilities and accept that I matter
- Plant the seeds of expectation in my mind
- Fight the elements to survive my inner critic and outer critic – yes, both types
- Take good care of myself – everything begins with self love and self care
- Dig deep and find the courage in me to cultivate my “seeds”, my goals into “fruits” of success.
- Tend thoughts so that I am open to accomplishing my goals
- Trust myself to face and overcome any weakness of purpose or obstacles along the way
I am making growing my inner garden a prayer for myself to help me transform my intentions into action and results.
And because today is gratitude day, I am thankful for:
- Four full holidays with family. We had a cozy time cleaning, eating together, and generally had a pleasant time. Of course Vidur has “vacation” even if he’s studying all the time for the various exams coming up. He enjoys it..so who am I to even react! Peace!
- The time to clean. Yes, actually. I reveled in the act of clearing out a lot of stuff, dusting, purging and feeling so light. I do have miles to go before I sleep, but I am going to enjoy the journey. I am grateful to all those who are happily receiving what I am giving away.
- My new camera. Yet to use it. But I am so thrilled about it. It is as if a whole new world has opened up through the lens. So blessed!
- Books. And more books. Few things can beat the feeling of knowing I have enough books to read for as long as I live. And that stash is growing all the time. Some day, I’ll just chill all day and read books and eat and sleep and walk. My wants are simple!
- Blood sugar check turned up acceptable results. So grateful for that.
- The blogger friends I am connecting with. Such a pleasure to travel the world via my keyboard and discover wonderful writers, warm people. Special thanks to Kathy Hadley who works so hard to maintain a lively blogging group at the UltraBlogChallenge. Grateful for a warm community.
- My son for being an experimenter with food. He is so loving and cheerful and full of praise for whatever I make. My husband? He offers a silent prayer simply because we have food to eat! We have both known the pain of hunger when we were younger.
- These nice flipflops – an impulse purchase months ago – which were readily available when my old flipflops’ straps just broke.
- Thanks to Vishnu of Vishnu’s Virtues, who is a regular visitor here and who kindly included this blog in the 30 women bloggers he can’t live without list – when I got his newsletter (which is fun, by the way) I found the subject line so hilarious – it said “Women I can’t live without”, I just had to run over and check it out and laughed even harder when I saw he meant “women bloggers” Well played, Vishnu!
- And my heart overflows with gratitude for the positive comments and emails I receive – you know who you are – thanks for your kind words and encouragement.
Now tell me: How do you grow your inner garden?
Thanks to Laurel of Alphabet Salad for hosting the Today’s Gratitude List linky
What a lovely analogy. I am a keen grower of anything and everything in the garden and my allotment. Not only do I love growing things but I love weeding as well. I will think of my goals and dreams as flowers that shrubs that not only grow but attract butterflies and bees.
Thank you Judy! I realized I wrote a post a couple of years ago about refusing to water my weeds.
Gardening is such a beautiful activity – I fantasize about living in a bungalow with gardens around it 🙂 For now, I am happy with the plants we’re growing around our apartment complex. The joy of seeing a new leaf, a new bud is so amazing!
Love your reference to butterflies and bees. Life is good, isn’t it?
Yes, Vidya, You are absolutely right. we need to nurture the garden in order to reap the growth.
It is the truth, isn’t it Michelle?
Now, why are you tempting me with ice-cream? Hugs!
A most timely post for me to read today my friend, as I have some serious weeding and pruning to do to my “internal” garden. You always lift my spirits. Cheers! Kaarina
So do you, Kaarina. I feel I am a better person for knowing you. Hugs!
Lovely post, Mam.I wish I could slowly grow my inner garden in a similar way. I esp, liked your gratitude list. You finally brought a new camera? Wow. Waiting for your picture post. 🙂 And the flip flops are cute.
😀 I am a fan of bright footwear, Shalini! Yep, I got my new camera :)and am so looking forward to using it.
Hugs!
Wonderful post Vidya. To grow and nurture anything effectively requires love and gratitude. Focusing on the little things and nurturing them is what helps us grow big.
Thanks a lot for sharing :).
Thank you Raghib! 🙂 The little things always add up to the big things!
that was lovely Vidya..
you have said it so nicely – how important it is to nurture ourselves, to grow..
those flipflops are cute! I love bright coloured shoes/sandals 🙂
Thanks Pixie! I love them too!
I have enough books to read for as long as I live**!!!!
You are such a blessing to me. I really love you more than the sun falling upon my skin the very moment as I type this. xx
Hugs, Kim! I am in book heaven!
Love you more than the “champa” flowers blooming in our yard right now and filling the area with their fragrance.
Women…women bloggers lol same difference, right? Thanks for your mention here and even more grateful for you being on the list. Enjoy reading your gratitude items here, Vidya, always a good reminder for us to remember all the small and big blessings in our lives.
I love what you wrote and love is the biggest part! With love comes care and nurturing. I sometimes weed…especially those stray hairs that grow from my chin. I water…at the worst times especially when I laugh. I feel the sun and must throw water on my face because I am having another hot flash. I am growing, Boy am I growing! I think I got too much food and at times I have too much fertilizer. In the end, though, I am comforted by a caress and the words of gentleness. I feel the cooling drops of water and I am enjoying my age as I feel quite young even if my physical body disagrees