Water your garden. Pull the weeds. Maybe keep some weeds once you realize how nutritious and misunderstood they are. Maybe pull out some of the Peonies instead.
While I was painting “The Souls We Found’ I was doing some hardcore metaphorical gardening in my life. What relationships are draining my garden of nutrients? Do I have too many plants in here and are they all suffering because of it? Should I instead fertilize and water only my favorites? Do I tell Nancy I don’t want to go to her fucking birthday because I don’t want to just sit and scroll through her dog photos?
You catch my drift?
So I did just this. The gardening part not the Nancy part (she isn’t actually real.) I got my knees dirty and approached my external world with honesty and intuition turned on high. I said goodbyes with gratitude for the teaching, and I said I love you’s to those I didn’t say to enough. I spoke from my chest and gut without doubting my heart, and over time my garden changed. Those who didn’t belong found a place they did, and those who stayed grew full and tall.
I , for once, could lay down in my garden and spread out my arms in love. For I trusted it all, each petal and leaf. Each bug that stomped about. I knew that what grew here in my heart chose to be here, and I chose for it to stay. I trusted it all.
The Souls We Found is a Keeper of this space. A representation of the serenity that comes from the curation of your heart. She is a reminder of the capacity of love once you learn to fully say goodbye and hello, and the souls you may find along the way.