Garden Of Relationships

Perhaps a good relationship is like a walk through a great garden.  Mindfully...being fully present, one person enters the interior garden of the other without trampling any of the flowers, without blaming anyone for the presence of a few weeds...weeds happen.  On this journey we proceed with great appreciation for the immense time, pain, work and growth it took to be this way.  Visiting another's garden requires attention and appreciation of the design and patterns.  Everyone knows a good garden involves comtemplative planning and being a compassionate witness to the process of growing.  It involves being an alert observer, the warm sunlight of affection, careful tending, nurturing and validating encouragement to grow....without the judgmental diversionary mind set of controlling the elements or setting a time frame when things will ripen.  A good garden and a good relationship are both hospitable places where one's design is accepted no matter how straight the rows are or how fragmented the design may seem to others.  It is that vulnerable place where we are granted permission to bloom in the safety of being loved and tended to, just like we are.  When we visit one another's gardens, let us be compassionate witnesses...nor judge, jury or critic.  It is in this intimacy that relationships are formed, love deepens, communities and people flourish.  Get growing!