In this meditation,
We're going to engage with the idea of your life as a garden.
I'll invite you to use your imagination and offer a few prompts as you explore your garden.
As you feel comfortable,
We'll invite the God of Love to come and meet with you in your garden.
We'll also explore the walls of your garden as a means to understand the boundaries in our lives.
You might do this practice silently,
Through journaling,
Or by drawing.
When you are ready,
I invite you to sit in a comfortable position,
Allowing your shoulders to drop and relax,
And planting your feet firmly on the ground.
If you feel comfortable,
Gently close your eyes,
And for the next few breaths,
Bring your full focus of attention to your breathing.
Notice the feeling of the air flowing in through your nostrils,
Down into your lungs,
And into the belly as you inhale.
And on the exhale,
Feeling the release of any tension as you let the air out slowly.
Now imagine that you are sitting in a garden.
What do you notice?
What are you sitting on?
What do you smell or feel on your skin?
Perhaps the sunshine or breeze?
What colors do you see around you?
Notice how you feel in your body being in that place.
Now imagine that you are sitting in the garden of your life.
What do you notice?
What do you feel being in it?
Take some time to perhaps wander around it.
Are there paths through the garden?
What might need tending to?
And what brings you delight?
As it feels right to you,
Invite God to come and meet with you there.
Maybe notice what God is already up to.
Invite God to come and walk with you as you explore the garden.
Is there an area in the garden that you don't want to go to?
And is there an area in the garden that brings you a lot of joy?
Imagine yourself in the garden,
Relaxing,
Making yourself at home.
Perhaps just simply being.
And when you are ready,
Notice the surroundings of the garden.
Is there a wall or a fence?
How high are they?
What are they made out of?
Do they need to be repaired?
In their famous book on boundaries,
Dr.
Henry Cloud and John Townsend write,
The owner of the property is legally responsible for what happens on his or her property.
Non-owners are not responsible for what happens on their property.
Non-owners are not responsible for the property.
In other words,
Ownership of our garden or property requires the responsibility to tend to and care for it.
A property line defines where someone's property ends and where someone else's begins.
Healthy boundaries are like a garden wall or a property line.
I can look over and reach across the wall,
But the wall is present.
It isn't a barricade between me and others.
There is a well-functioning gate that I can open and close.
I can choose who I invite into my garden.
I can invite them and I can say no to someone entering.
As we close,
I invite you to consider if there are those you've let into your life that require better boundaries.
Or maybe you've had high walls and there's an invitation to do some major remodeling,
To let people who love you into your life.
Take a moment to consider these ideas.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Return to that safe place in your garden,
The place that brings you joy or delight.
Noticing again what sensations you feel being there.
Inhaling even more deeply than you have yet today.
And exhaling all the way out.
Is there a truth that you want to hold onto about yourself that seems somehow even more easy to grasp when you are in that place?
Breathe in that truth and breathe out whatever might be holding you back and believing it.
This meditation will end in a moment with a bell.
And yet I invite you,
If you have the time,
To sit in that space for a few moments.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Receiving whatever God has for you in this time.
May you know you are loved.
