Monday, April 24, 2017

Garden Shed Confession: My Flowers Are Stressing Me Out!

Just A Girl Who Talks To Her Cell Phone In Her Garden Shed

Yesterday, I was sitting in my garden shed taking a break from weeding the gardens in our front yard when I came to the following slightly disturbing realization: All the pretty flowers blooming in my gardens were stressing me out!

This eventually compelled me to make what I decided to call a "garden shed confession" on my Instagram account, using the Instagram Story Feature.

Basically I confessed to being a recovering perfectionist and how this was robbing me of actually enjoying the beauty of my gardens.  Instead of being thrilled that my Irises were blooming again, my inner perfectionist was making me feel frantic about the amount of weeds that had popped up in their beds.  I found myself fretting that all my flowers were going to start blooming before I did all the weeding, mulching and planting I wanted to do to show them to their best advantage.

Of course this was ridiculous and thankfully I was quickly able to recognize this.  I also recognized that I needed to do something to change this joy robbing mindset.

Flowers In My Perfectly Imperfect Backyard

So I took my cell phone on a leisurely walk around my yard and took some photos of the flowers blooming there.  After only a few minutes of this it was clear to me that my flowers required very little help from me to be shown to their best advantage.  Their beauty out-shined any presence of weeds around them.  They didn't need a perfect garden to reach their full potential.  They were perfection on their own.

Rising Above The Weeds

Of course this doesn't mean that I will stop pulling up the weeds.  It just means that I won't allow them or my perfectionism to rob me of enjoying the beauty and the magic that surrounds me while I do.

Outshining The Weeds

To catch my next "garden shed confession" and see more photos and videos of my home and gardens, follow me on Instagram.








Monday, April 17, 2017

When The World Smells Like Lilacs




The other day I was listening to Joe Walsh sing “Life's Been Good” on my car stereo and, like always, I found myself smiling and nodding my head at the line, “I can't complain but sometimes I still do.”

I'm sure I'm not the only one who relates to that lyric. It's so easy to complain about life's disappointments and inconveniences, even when we know we have it relatively good. I know that for me all it takes is lack of sleep, hunger or crappy weather to convince me that the universe is picking on me some days.

The Lilac Portal

However, on Spring days such as the ones we've been having lately, I have no trouble remembering how wonderful life can be and how very lucky and blessed I am.

It's just so much easier to practice gratitude when the world smells like Lilacs, or to believe in magic when it's raining apple blossoms in my backyard or to have faith in miracles when the “Immortality” Irises in my front yard decide to bloom on Easter Sunday.

Peace Beneath The Lilacs

Apple Blossom Magic

Immortality Irises


Life's been good to me so far.