How Does Your Garden Grow?

I've been doing a lot of thinking this past week or so.  On the road to recovery, as one might say, you tend to reflect on the past.  Looking back on mistakes that you made along the way.  Looking back on mistakes that others made along the way as well.

In my reflection, a common theme keeps sprouting up.  My garden.  For years, I planted a garden every year.  I discovered how much I loved seeing things grow.  Flowers, vegetables, bushes, trees, plants, it didn't matter.  I put a remarkable amount of time, love and passion into growing things.

Because of a situational change, it wasn't until this year that I was able to plant again.  Something else that I did out of love.  True of heart, I weeded, planted, fertilized and watered.  I planned out something that I thought was both beautiful and kind.  I expended an enormous amount of time and energy doing so, but it was done, not out of a sense of responsibility, but of genuine kindness.  To make both myself and others around me happy.  To see something that I put into the earth with my own hands grow and bloom and thrive beyond measure.  In a sense, it was a way for me to live when the rest of me felt like I was dying.

But now, I no longer have my garden.  And I miss it terribly.  It seems a bit selfish to me that I should feel this way because it was done as a gift.  Yet I still can't help but think about it.  How are my herbs growing?  Are my vegetables getting enough food and water and sunlight and natural rain?  I don't know the answers to these questions and I know that I have to let the garden go. 

So now, I am focusing on my personal garden.  As a euphemism for my life, it seems quite appropriate.  To keep myself healthy, I need water and nourishment and sunlight.  I even need music to keep growing.  I have to make sure that I rid myself of the weeds that were surrounding me and strangling my growth.  For my own personal happiness, for my well-being, I have to be strong.  And I also need tending.  Which I have.  People in my life who care for me and help me.

So how does your garden grow?  Are there weeds that you need to remove?

Love,
Autumn