# 20201127 Tend to your inner garden https://moseshng.wordpress.com/2020/11/27/tend-to-your-inner-garden/ I was playing with this idea of a inner garden in me, as a way to practise self-care, and creating “space” to “hold” my client in therapy. I needed the sense of calmness in myself before I can serve them. “Gardening is a practice, not an idea”. There is a sacred inner garden in us. ## My Garden I am building my inner garden. Right in the middle of it, there is a water fountain of living water (this reference to my faith), and it symbolises the source of my life. Without water, there is no life. The fountain overflows, and there a river of that waters everything in the garden. It is spacious, with lash carpet grass. You see shrubs, trees. There are trees with large canopy in the garden which provides shades for visitors and me. In the sky, there is a “Wakanda-like” force field that covers the whole of my garden. So my garden is always shielded from bad weather. It’s sunny and warm in the garden with natural sunlight. The sun gives warm and illuminate. Around the perimeter of this garden are tall boxwood hedges, it moves and changes in configuration, so that no strangers can enter without my permission. We protect and tend to our garden daily so that there are no pests, stray wild animals, and strangers in it. ## Symbols The earth, soil — what kind of material in my heart? Does it encourage growth? Is it harden? (Reference to the parable of the sower) Sun — Seeing clearly Fountain of water — Living water, my faith. Trees — Knowledge, Wisdom Seeds — Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, there are many seeds in the heart, whichever you water, grows stronger. Weeds, Pests — Unhelpful thoughts? Shit — Unpleasant events or things in life, yet we can compost them to fertilise the plants. Tool Shed in the garden — What skills I have? Fruit Trees — What gifts do I have to bless others? ## My gardening project I hope to cultivate fruit trees in my garden so that I can have fruits to bless others. I also want to have bees, honey in my garden. Honey give energy to those who are weary. A restful place for others I shared this thought with a friend. He said that if we can all start to tend to our garden, then we can rest in each other’s garden. ## Suggestions What kind of garden (or secret place) do you have? Sketch it out, elaborate on it. Moses Hng 27 Nov 2020