If peace is what you seek, this comes from cultivating inner harmony from a strong core and centered self, which will ultimately reduce stress and anxiety, as well as increase inner joy. It shifts your perspective on life and about anyone you experience along the journey, and ultimately affects the way you choose to either react or respond. It helps you be in the stillness of presence to draw from your core source and be conscious of the subtleties that nudge you to their attention.

Your garden within consists of your soul-self where your inner wisdom, peace and source of pure, limitless, unconditional love and compassion reside. It is here that you find all that is nurturing and supportive to guide you on your journey, abundantly equipped with the replenishment of all you will ever need.

It is pointless to search the whole world for the wonderful things you desire, as we all, at some point, discover there never being need to search – only the need for courage to look within to behold the treasure. If we find something or someone affecting our peace of mind and inner harmony, that is the moment we have stopped being in the power of our hearts and took a brief side-step from our core source into the ego dance, which can only sway from black to white – unable to be in that integrative gray.

Your conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions fuel the direction and quality of your daily life and inner harmony. It is invaluable to keep vigil to the fire in your heart. Cycles will come and go and darkness is not only something you can learn to navigate as an integral part of the presence of light, but is also never permanent. There is meaning and importance in the balance and natural harmony you have available at all moments simply by being the totality of you.

There is also importance in asking the questions that will provide opportunity to go deeper and expand the ways in which you realize your connection to the world and every experience around you. So when something throws you off and you find yourself over-stimulated in one way or another, or not standing solidly in your heart, these are the times to mirror the example of nature around us. See how nature is willing to soften, flow, rest, shift, blend, sprout, thaw, shed…to allow for new growth.

Life has an ebb and flow to it – embrace this knowing that everything is fleeting.

You are the gardener of your own life and what you choose to mindfully plant, nurture, and cultivate from the rich soil of your heart, will reflect the pattern of growth you choose and the experiences you have. The world is a mirror to your inner landscape, and vice versa, so when you open your awareness to all that is unfolding, you begin to understand how true alchemy works. Every part of the journey is important (no matter how small or unseen the internal shifts are) and they ARE worth your time and WILL grow into new blossoms that convey the contemplative cultivation you have given to them.

May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us. ~Saint Terese of Liseaux