Tending the Garden

I am grateful to live in a world full of flowers. I love their fragrance, color, and symbolic nature. Flowers are the world’s beauty marks along with so many other aspects of nature that catch me speechless. I am but a small speck in the massive construct of nature and yet somehow, I hold value.

Summer is coming. As a homeowner, I want to plant flowers to make my yard more colorful. I want to fill the city air with more sweet fragrances. I want to live in a magical garden where I can allow my imagination to run wild. I want the kids of the neighborhood to play and feel safe. I want to hold tea parties and bonfires. I want to create moments of magic from my backyard. I’ve always been enchanted by nature.

Though I could ramble about actual flowers forever, let me switch gears. I think social media is spreading us mentally too thin. I think the desire to be popular and have a lot of friends is wearing us thin. There are reasons that depression, anxiety, suicide, and violence are high. Everyone is juggling multiple lives. We are trying to people please everyone while trying to hold our sanity together. 

Our mental well-being is our garden. What we plant is what will grow. We create the environment we live in. Let me break this down even further. 

Not every flower belongs in the same ecosystem. Not every flower can grow in the same kind of environment. Not every flower needs the same kind of attention. Not every flower looks the same. Not every flower has the same experience. Not every flower is the same. [Replace flower with person and read this paragraph again]

It is okay to cut people out of your garden. *GASP* 

Yep, I said it. We can’t please everyone, and everyone will not always please each other.

I’m not trying to create a friend group out of people I don’t like. I am not obligated to get along or like everyone. I enjoy being a person of peace, so if someone is not following the rules of my garden, that weed shall be removed. Even if that weed once looked like a flower to me. My parents always said, “who you go with is who you will become.” Your social circle is your garden.  

I try to be a kind and tender gardener. I seek counsel when I am unsure of the kindest way to navigate through a decision. I don’t cut people out of my life to seek out revenge or end all ties with them. I set people free from my garden just as much as I am weeding it out for myself. I only want good things for the flowers plucked. I just want my garden to look, feel, and be a certain way.

Love is limitless. Love is free. Perfect love casts out fear. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love is an action.

Peace of mind is something I work towards. Boundaries are mandatory. If something or someone costs me my peace, the price is too high.

I can love someone from far away as long as there is peace. I don’t have time to think about all the people who forgot about me. I only have time for the people I want to make time for or who make time for me. That’s how I tend to my garden. I look for new flowers to plant, but I am always keeping a loving watch over the flowers I already have.

I am thankful and blessed for all the amazing people I have in my life. I have been going through so many wonderful learning experiences. My journey of self and self-love has been absolutely incredible.