Meg Evans

I have three large hostas in my front garden. A neighbor gave them to me long ago, when she discovered that she had bought a few more than she needed. Three years ago, I posted a blog entry called Room to Grow, about moving the hostas when they grew larger than I had anticipated. Life is full of assumptions that need revising, I wrote, and such tasks are best done promptly.
 

The plants have been thriving in their new location. All they needed was a little more space! Often that’s true in our own lives, too. When we feel stuck and frustrated, maybe we shouldn’t just try to get used to the annoying situation. Instead, we might do better to move things around and give ourselves more space to keep on growing!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

We all have days when we feel stuck, like there’s nothing to be done with a problem. It feels like we got hold of a box that is shut tight, and no matter how hard we yank on the lid, it’s never going to lift up. But maybe that just means the box needs to be opened a different way.
 

Sometimes we simply need to take a little time and consider the situation from other perspectives, asking “What else is here?” That’s when we discover much more is unfolding than we first imagined, and lots of unexpected treasures were right there all along!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Last month I posted a Nurturing Thursday entry with a photo of yellow daylilies in bloom next to my house. I mentioned in the comments that I also like orange lilies, but had not planted any. Much to my surprise, this week I found lovely orange lilies blooming in a gap in my neighbors’ hedge (shown in this post) where the deer trampled down the bushes long ago.
 

Just gorgeous! I don’t know whether the neighbors planted the lilies recently, or maybe they were there all along and never grew enough to bloom because the deer always stepped on them. I haven’t seen any deer walking through the hedge this year, probably because construction of new homes changed their usual paths. So it looks like the hedge is finally going to grow together, with orange lilies as a bonus, yay! Sometimes when we wish for things, they really do show up.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Somewhere deep inside our minds there’s a door to a place we don’t want to see, overflowing with heaps of scary old emotional baggage that we haven’t managed to clear away. We wish we could forget all about it, and most of the time we do; but when a present-day experience triggers those bad memories, the door swings wide open, no matter how many bars and screens we might believe we’ve put across it.
 

What’s to be done about that door? More bars won’t solve the problem. Plant some nice pretty mental landscaping in front of it and make it less noticeable? Well, that might help a little; but really, it needs the same treatment as a real-life cluttered room full of ugly, rusty junk. Rather than trying to leave the door closed forever, we just need to roll up our sleeves and march confidently in there with a box of garbage bags, a bucket of hot soapy water, and a mop.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I posted a photo of daylily plants under my gas meter for a Nurturing Thursday entry in April and mentioned in the comments that I would take another picture when they were in bloom. They’re looking good today, and it’s bright and sunny after almost an entire day of rain yesterday, which has made the grass look nice and green too! Here’s the new photo:
 

Because the plants are thick and healthy, they haven’t needed much weeding this year. That’s also what happens with our own lives when we root out all those prickly mental weeds of negativity, fear, and bad habits—we’re healthier and have more energy for blooming, and there is no space for weeds to grow back!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

My husband has a very good sense of how mechanical things fit together. That is not one of my strong points, though; and he often tells me “Don’t force it.” We have a spigot on the east side of the house that got stripped because I turned the knob too far a few years ago, and now it has to be turned off very carefully. We haven’t replaced it because the pipe is in a place that is hard to access from inside the house. So, when I hook up a lawn sprinkler to it, I generally leave putting away the hose and sprinkler to my husband.
 

Not forcing things is useful advice in many other contexts, too. I’ve always had what I would consider a good amount of persistence. When I commit to a task, chances are I’ll get it done. When it comes to patience, though, I have to admit there’s room for improvement. I recently had a conversation on another blog about how we try to cram everything we want into the now, rather than letting things take their natural course, which leads to constant feelings of pressure that actually make it harder to get what we want. We’d all do much better not to force it!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Changeable weather in late spring means we often go from chilly nights, when we have the heat on, to hot afternoons when we run the air conditioner. So when we get a day with pleasant temperatures, it feels especially good to open the windows, let in the fresh air, look up at the little puffy clouds high in the sky, and hear the birds singing!
 

Sometimes everyday life feels like that, too. Maybe we’re under pressure to get things done and feel that “the heat is on,” or when there’s not much going on, it feels as dull as spending a hot afternoon indoors with all the windows shut and the air conditioner running. Opening the mind’s windows regularly to let in some fresh thoughts does us a lot of good, whether we have been feeling stifled by busy days or just by too many mindless activities.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Last summer I bought a small garden fountain to put on my front porch, which faces north-northwest and is always in the shade. The porch had seemed so dark and still with nothing but the doormat to brighten it up! The fountain definitely adds cheerful energy; and for those interested in feng shui, that spot is the house’s north compass point where a fountain traditionally would be placed. All good!
 

The garden where I planted the alyssum shown in last Thursday’s entry is on the other side of the stone pillar shown in this photo. I also have snapdragons planted there, along with astilbe in a shady corner, and two varieties of hostas. It always lifts my mood to look out the window and see the flowers all summer long! Of course, in the winter there’s nothing but bare ground, and the fountain has to be brought indoors and put away until spring; but for now, there’s plenty of time left to enjoy both the fountain and the garden!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I plant sweet alyssum in my garden every May, and it always makes me feel peaceful and happy. The blossoms smell lovely—and they’re edible too, as alyssum is related to broccoli. It is native to Mediterranean countries, where it sometimes is used in salads. Alyssum means “without madness,” which comes from the ancient Greeks’ use of the plant as herbal medicine to calm angry feelings and promote emotional balance. They also believed it could prevent rabies. 

In warmer climates alyssum grows year-round, but where I live it gets too cold for that! Having to replant it every spring is okay, though, because working in the garden helps with feeling more centered and (literally) grounded. So, alyssum is good for self-nurturing whether it is eaten or whether it is planted just for its pretty blossoms and pleasant fragrance. Either way, it’s part of a peaceful and calming flower garden!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.