(Left-garden 2013 and Right-yesterday 2016)

Dear Reader:

I had an epiphany yesterday as I went out (one more time) to water my garden. (How my side of Summerville lucked out on any substantial rain is a mystery to me?….My neighborhood got rain a week ago yesterday and for all intents and purposes that was it….except for an occasional “drop” and I do mean “drop.” We definitely got swindled out of our fair share of rain.)

But I digress…as I watered the garden early in the morning, the thought came to me that that it was only by working through my fears of inadequacy and lack of knowledge about creating/maintaining a garden that freed me up to begin. Secondly, I, then, had to commit to giving up my time to have the sanctuary garden of my dreams.

It does seem to be a basic law of life that we have only what we give up. Now the garden isn’t a dream. It is the sanctuary I go to… to walk with God. In order to be truly alive, the price exacted is letting go of the past and embracing the moment.

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I came across this anonymous piece of prose that falls along the way of thinking that we must give first, to get later.

You Only Get to Keep
What You Give Away

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It’s a universal law:
     You have to give before you get.
You must plant your seeds
     before you reap the harvest.
The more you sow, the more you’ll reap.
In giving to others,
     you’ll find yourself blessed.The law works to give you back
     more than you have sown.
The giver’s harvest is always full.
Those that obtain have little.
Those who scatter have much.

Nature does not give to those
     who will not spend.

Source Unknown

……………………………..

Isn’t this also true of friendship and love? As a mother of three children, I was conscious of the fact that one day I would have to “give my children away to the world.” The thought pained me but, at the same time, it excited me.. What would my children contribute to this world by their presence in it?

I have been blessed to see three children develop into confident, good decent human beings, who give back to the world through their strengths of personality, perseverance, and  principles. They are devoted to their special relationships, marriages, and children. I am a very blessed mother and grandmother.

The only way to have a friend is to be one and the only way to be loved is to love others….God gives us unconditional love far above man’s ability to do so. Give first, receive later.

So until tomorrow….“Whenever we do give up a person or a thing or a position, when we truly give it up, we die-yes, but we die into greater aliveness. We die into a real oneness with life. Not to die, not to give up, means to exclude ourselves from that free flow of life.” (Brother David Steindl-Rast)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh