Inspiration & Inner Gardens - III

I hope that my products will make a difference in your life, no matter how small. Try them out and see if they:

  • Make you or a friend smile, brightening your day.
  • Inspire a newfound appreciation of nature, causing you to notice the pattern in a tree’s bark, or a garden tucked behind a city wall.

                 

  • Infuse your hectic life with images that relieve stress and connect you to the natural world.
  • Help you internalize the vitality and joy a garden exudes, improving your health and mental outlook. 
  • Inspire you to plant a tree on your own or through our partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.
  • Enable you to share with others a joyful, lighthearted interpretation of nature that is uplifting.
  • Spark a child's curiosity about flowers and the role they play in ecology.   
  • Catch a stranger's eye, leading to a friendly exchange.

All of these are steps in a process I call “Cultivating Your Inner Garden.” They are joined and intertwined like the tendrils of a vine, one leading to the other. The process begins with a simple smile, a reaction to a crazy color, improved awareness of our natural surroundings, maybe a hike or walk in a park, eventually followed by gratitude and a sense of being connected to the earth. This sense alone can enhance our moods and interactions with others.

                   

 If we choose, this sense also can enable us to enter a meditative state, or become more perceptive and empathetic as humans, to experience life more deeply and fully, to better know ourselves. At this point, I like to think we are becoming gardens ourselves, tending to long neglected soil, strengthening our foundations, expanding the reach of our root systems to embrace new horizons and resources.

            

Experiencing the wonder of nature in any form, by touching a smooth stone or admiring the pattern of a leaf in a painting, can help us clear a path to our own gardens. We can all find places inside ourselves that are sanctuaries, secret alcoves that protect our souls, or reflecting pools like those we find in tranquil gardens. When nurtured and cared for, these are the places from which we grow, blossom and thrive, sharing our inner radiance with the world.  -Melanie