Written by: Jenna

Summer time ushers in some of the best produce of all the seasons.  There is nothing better than snacking on a scrumptious strawberry that needs no sugar because it’s already so sweet.  In the lazy summer days of my youth, my best friend and I would rummage through her backyard for the blackberries that lined her back fence.  We’d devour those and then move on to the grapevines they had growing all over.  Then we were off to pick the fruit off her trees.  I remember  her parents were always outside tending to that garden.  I don’t think I have ever seen a garden more amazing than theirs.  Every night for dinner, my friends Mother would send someone outside to pick something from that garden so they could indulge on it for dinner.  They reaped the benefits of their hard work and dedicated effort that was put into their garden.

Our minds are a lot like a garden.  “We reap what we sow,”  as the old saying goes.  Our thoughts are like seeds.  When a seed is planted and is nourished, most likely it will grow and bloom.  If you continue to care for it and nurture it then you will see positive results.  If you never tend to it then you most likely will see no results.  If you nurture the seeds at first and they start growing and then you let it go, you may see that your garden runs wild. Weeds will probably take over your garden and then you are in for more work than you initially started out with.  It would save a lot of time, effort, and maybe some heartache, if you just tended to the seeds in the garden properly in the very beginning, instead of dealing with the negative effects in the end.  So it is with the seeds of thought that lay in the gardens of our mind. Just like a gardener cultivates his garden and keeps it free from nagging weeds and annoying pests, we too must weed out the negativity that would take over our mind- gardens if we let it.  Any seed of thought that is allowed to take up roots in our mind, and build a home, will blossom into something, whether it’s a good seed or a bad one.  If the seeds of hate, bitterness, fear, anger, resentment, guilt, sorrow, anxiety, or any seed of that nature takes root, then the results of those seeds will show up in your life.  If you constantly think a certain way you will see that manifest sooner or later. There is no stopping it unless you let new seeds take root.  Seeds of joy, love, charity, hope, peace, serenity, courage, happiness, and any other positive seed, will sow positive changes in ones own life.  A man or women is truly what they think.  Those hidden beliefs deep in the recesses of your mind will come to the surface of  your mind and bloom in your life.  Let us try sowing new seeds.  It doesn’t matter how long you have been sowing the wrong seeds in your own garden of your mind.  You can start now to sow the kind of seeds that you want to see in your own life.  You are the only one that can truly control your own mind.  Cultivate your garden and tend it to how you want it to be.

I have taught my kids about tending to their own gardens.  We as parents have the power to break the cycle of negativity in our lives and our children’s lives.  We have the power to help them change the way they think,  and to help them create a more positive, peaceful life.  One day I was complaining about my knees and back hurting from a long workout earlier that day.  My 6-year-old daughter looked and me and said, “Mom, you need to strengthen your garden.”  It completely sunk in that my kids are getting it.  She understood about the garden of the mind.  Now whenever anyone complains or says things aren’t working, or something hurts, someone always blurts out, “Your garden is weak, you need to fix your garden.”  Although we can’t control every seed thought that enters our mind, we can control how long we let it stay there.  We need to be more mindful of our thoughts.  Most of us don’t realize how negative our thoughts are, I know I didn’t.  Entertain only those thoughts that make you feel good.  The thoughts that lift you up.  Get rid of the thoughts that tear you down, and those thoughts that make you feel negative emotions about yourself or those around you.  James Allen said, “A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak, abject, and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts. “Let us lift up our thoughts.  Tend the thought seeds and garden of your mind.  Keep your gardens strong.

Hope on.  Journey On.

Jenna