It has been a beautiful week honouring the life of Tich Nhat Hanh the Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, peace activist and spiritual seeker. Last week I shared how his simple presentation of life’s deepest mysteries have really shaped my own life. I feel so blessed to be still learning, still peeling back the layers, still deepening my own understanding of the art and skill of pausing which Thay so easily embodied.
This was also a really great week because I got to meet so many wonderful women on my How to Banish Burnout and Blossom masterclass. It never ceases to amaze me how even spending just one hour together in a virtual room, amazing women begin to reach out, to connect and to support each other, as we rediscover our common humanity, and realise again that ‘we are all just walking each other home’. I am so thrilled that some of these beautiful souls have signed up to work with me on my VIP programme.
if you are reading this and you did not make it to the masterclass or if you are taking this journey in your own way, finding your own path to shifting the gaze from burnout towards blossoming, this beautiful poem is especially for you.
A Good Gardener
Inside every one of us is a garden,
and we have to return to it and take care of it.
Maybe in the past, you left your garden
untended for a long periods.
Restore the beauty in your garden,
Restore the harmony in your garden
then others can enjoy your garden,
if it is well tended.
Taking good care of your garden, yourself,
is the foundation for your capacity to love the other person.
The quality of your life depends on the seeds you water.
If you plant tomato seeds in your gardens, tomatoes will grow.
Just so, if you water a seed of peace in your mind, peace will grow.
When the seed of anger in you is watered,
you will become angry.
The seeds that are watered frequently
are those that will grow strong.
The gardener has to trust the earth because
it is the earth that brings forth the fruit of understanding and compassion.
Restore the beauty in your garden, ( and practice)
Restore the harmony in your garden,
then others can enjoy your garden, if it is well tended.
Our role as gardeners is to choose,
plant and tend the best seeds within the garden of our consciousness.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Deep peace to you
