Growing My Inner Garden #Gratitude

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

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.

thank you Pathtowellness.com.au

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