The Secret Garden

This is a series I am doing for the month of October. If you are new, you can start HERE.

Day 3

Thoughts on Joy:

“Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.” Sarah Ban Breathnach

Bloom Where You are Planted. I've never been a huge fan of this little adage, but something kind of interesting happened to me. I fell asleep and had a nap today (no, that's not the interesting part) and while I was napping I had a dream. 

In my dream I was gardening. I was unhappy with my garden so I started moving all the plants around. I uprooted shade loving plants and placed them in full sun. I moved the plants from the sunny part of my garden to the shade and generally just changed everything around. And then, everything wilted and withered and died. What had been green and vibrant and lush became sad and brown and crunchy. 

In my semi-conscious mind as I started waking, understanding began to dawn on me. Heavenly Father has put me in the exact place where He knows that  I need to be to grow--the perfect spot of ground for me to thrive. He has blessed me abundantly and everything I need for my secret garden to flourish is available to me--"love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits..." I just have to choose to recognize it and to remember that He is the Master Gardener. 


When I do that--when I allow myself to be pruned and cultivated by His loving and tender hands, when I recognize that I am where I need to be and that I have all that I need, when I nurture my own positive thoughts and gratitude, then, I not only grow, I blossom into something magnificent. And I have joy. 

Let's take a minute on our journey to stop and smell the roses.

Today I Found Joy in My Journey:
--Snugging into my warm and comfortable bed in the chill of the morning after sleeping with the windows open last night.
--By baking banana bread. And by eating it. Yum.
--When I went on a quick picture taking expedition with my son to take the secret garden picture above. I love photography and though I am an amateur, it is so fulfilling to me.
--When my four year old reached out to hold my hand and smilingly looked up at me while we were walking.
--As I watched my seven year old make new friends this afternoon.

 What brought you joy today?

Other posts HERE