Everyone Needs A Secret Garden

I had the most wonderful dream: I was attending a gala with numerous friends and family members. Partway through, I decided I needed some fresh air. As I stepped outside, I noticed that I was standing on the beautiful veranda of a charming country estate. As I looked around, I noticed the lush greenery and beautiful flowers that covered this and every estate around it. I found myself wandering around the grounds, noticing the perfect purple-orange sky of dusk. As I rounded the elegant home, I realized that the south side of the estate transformed into my own house and yard. Where my actual side yard is narrow and sparse, the bit of earth I was standing on in my dream was even more lush, green, and beautiful than the surrounding properties. As I stood in awe of the beauty around me, I noticed that behind me and to my left was a stunningly huge oak tree. As I turned to admire it, a tree swing suddenly appeared, as if in invitation to stay awhile in this magical space.

I woke from this dream in a state of astonished bliss. I wrote down the details of the dream and, over breakfast, shared it with my husband. He listened and, when I was finished, said, “You have your own secret garden!”

The Secret Garden is a story of the redemption of two lonely children, a sick boy and an orphaned girl. They discover and bring back to life an abandoned and overgrown garden hidden behind stone walls. Its miraculous revival becomes an inspiring metaphor for their own rescue and resurrection, as well as for that of the master of the estate.

I believe we all have a “Secret Garden” in the depths of our soul, and the state of that garden depends on the health and vitality of our inner life. When, through death, debt, divorce, or illness, we are abruptly pulled away from the life we expected to be living, planned for, and dreamed about, and suddenly find ourselves in an alien landscape, it is staggering to our senses.

So how do we move from shadow to sunlight? From dreary weeds to a lush garden? Maybe through choosing to cut through the vines of distress to see the beauty on the other side. Or by choosing gratitude for all of these life experiences that can teach and enrich us, if we allow them to.

As we step through our daily routine with a lens of humble gratitude, hope, and wonder, we might find that our faded dreams move from muted grays to colorful vibrancy, much like the overgrown and abandoned Secret Garden returns to life.

Today, revisit the garden of your soul. Push open the heavy wooden door. Put on your spiritual gardening gloves and use your sharpest clippers. Each day, cut out one dreary and negative thought. Every day, prune your thoughts to cultivate the gorgeous hues you are craving. Every day, you determine your destiny by the thoughts and mindset that take root in the soil of your heart and mind.

Weed out your disappointments, unmet expectations, sorrows,
and frustrations. Emotional underbrush and weeds will only choke out your day, and your days become your destiny. Bless your imagination. Pray that a new idea will be planted in the fertile ground of your dreams. Then let perseverance, faith, and creative thought plant deep the seeds that will bring forth the most incredible flowers.

In the words of Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden, “When you have a garden, you have a future, and when
you have a future, you are alive.”