Dear Friends,

I’ll bet you didn’t know I used to farm. Now there is nothing better in the world than planting your bare feet in dark rich bottom land dirt. I love the smell of tilled ground. Preparing the seed bed is but one step to a beautiful garden.

Once the soil has been loosened, it is time to plant. You are my garden. Your mind is the soil.  Upon joining this group, you made the decision to let me help you with your garden. You have researched every possible way to plant. You know all those organizational books you have. Finally you decided to give FlyLady’s planting methods a try. For now you only know that you are looking for Peace. You have no idea how to find this peace in all of your clutter and Chaos. You can see the picture of your garden in your mind, but the harvest
seems just too far away. Don’t give up.

You have been told by countless friends that FlyLady can help you with your garden, but you have your doubts. “No one can ever helped me with my garden. It is just too far gone!” Well sisters and brothers I am here to tell you that your garden can be beautiful, but it will take some very hard, consistent work on your part. At times it will be heart wrenching and you will not be able to understand the method behind my madness(I know what you are thinking, FlyLady has to be crazy to ask us to do this). Please don’t give up when you get an assignment that is hard.

I have planted the seeds that will reap beautiful flowers, those seeds are our essays. We can’t physically come to your home do this, but with your consistent reading of our messages the seeds will begin to germinate. Your soil is prepared, but there are still some nasty weeds that did not get removed when your ground was tilled. We have to go in and pull up those weeds of bad habits, stinking thinking and not taking care of yourself. These weeds are so hard to get rid of, because right when you think you have conquered them, something happens and they rear their little heads and take root. This is why I tell you that you can start over at any moment.

Your garden is filled with perennials, you know these flowers that you have had for years. When you prepared the ground, you did not disturb the soil around them. It would break your heart, but the patch has become unruly, it no longer gives you the joy that it once did. Maybe that flower is not to your liking anymore. You have seen so much of it, that it is no longer a pleasure to behold.  This is why we are going to have to thin out the patch.

The best part of this lesson is that we can share our abundance with our friends. We get the joy of giving something we have grown weary of and they get the joy of receiving your gift.  This is kind of like planting a row of radishes and having thousands sprout, but if you don’t remove the majority of the little plants you will only have radish tops and no radishes. When you thin the row, you make room for bigger and better radishes to come into your garden. I know it is hard to thin out those plants that you have worked hard to grow. Too much of any one thing is not good. With too many radishes you will not be able to harvest any, but once your thin them, your radishes will get big and you will be able to have some to eat.

You know what these radishes represent. They are collections of clothes, shoes, books, toys, paper, what-nots, ceramics, dishes, fabric, you name it, we have collected it. Now don’t quit reading. I am not telling you to till under the whole row of radishes, I am just saying that we need to thin them a bit. It is going to be hard, but when you finish, you will have a collection that does not consume your whole garden.

If you had a garden full of radishes, you might be missing something wonderful just waiting to fill your taste buds with joy. Make room for the joys that this garden can bring you. I once had a coffee mug collection. About 4 dozen. It took me months, but slowly I gave them away to friends, one at a time. I would leave them anonymously on their desk. The mugs were beautiful, but they were no longer me. It was not that I didn’t like them anymore, they reminded me of where I had bought them or who I was with at the time. Not all those memories were pleasant. By giving the mugs away, I got a new memory to replace the sad one. I was thinning my radishes.

Then there are times when you have mowed your grass and the grass clippings get tossed into the garden. This is your trash that you leave lying around instead of disposing of right when it becomes trash. We leave it where it lies. Go into your garden and rake up all the trash. This action in itself will help the appearance of your Garden.

Preparing the ground, planting the seeds, and thinning the rows, is the hardest part of gardening. The fun part is your daily watering, pruning, and nurturing of the plants. It is a labor of love, to go into your garden and just pamper your plants. Your daily watering is your routines. These help you to stay on top of any problem. While you are doing your routines, you can nip off those spent flowers, these are your Hot Spots. Also while you are in the garden nurturing your wonderful plants you will notice that one area of the garden needs just a little more attention. This is your zones. As you work your way around the garden it will eventually become the tranquil place of peace that you have been yearning for.

This sanctuary did not happen in one week, it was a gradual change in the landscape, by your loving hand. Each nurturing touch may not have been noticed by the passer-by, but the overall effect will become a thing of beauty to behold. You see, for the true gardener, it is the process that makes the garden. An on-going, day to day journey, that is a passion for the love that is in you. Bless your garden by your tender hand. Make each swish of the toilet, swipe of a counter, or shining of your sink be the influence that makes your garden welcome to all visitors.

I love Gardens, Are you ready to cultivate yours?

FlyLady

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