In every house, either a small garden or a tree or at least a small potted plant would exist and be watered and cared for every day.
This will continue as long as we care for plants by admiring and enjoying them.
What a plant offers us might be less, but there is more in how we see it and enjoy its beauty.
At home, I had a small garden in the backyard with a choice of plants and colourful flowers that I liked very much.
Every morning I took time to water them and felt the freshness of the plaAnts and flowers. Every week I spent time plucking the weeds, manuring, spraying pesticides, cleaning the garden and maintaining its beauty. Whenever I had to travel, I requested someone to at least water them.
Eventually, I became busy with my office work and children and my attention to the garden slackened. I had completely stopped taking care of the garden because of traveling and stress.
Now the plants and flowers have withered and plenty of weeds and thorns have grown all over, providing shelter to a lot of poisonous creatures. My garden does not look pleasant anymore.
Nowadays, I spend more time sitting by the television rather than sitting by the garden enjoying the freshness and fragrance of it.
Today, as there was no electricity, feeling stuffy I just went to the backyard and sat on the steps facing the garden. I realised how eerie and ugly the garden looked.
What was once a beautiful garden is now a pile of rubbish and thorns, all because I ignored it being busy, while all that was needed was just a little attention of an hour a day.
I just thought for a minute, about what all I have ignored because of my busy schedule, that which needed my attention. Suddenly, I felt a deep rooted fear run all over me.
I closed my eyes and gently drifted towards my inner the consciousness.
As an observer, I watched my thoughts and feelings and scanned through the intentions of my mind.
Perhaps I felt a little guilt and embarrassment, because of the negativity in them and it was more about others than me.
I saw painful past experiences pricking me through even today. I noticed that I had allowed external influences, atmospheres and negative thoughts to creep inside me and sheltered poisonous creatures in the form of perceptions, assumptions, opinions and attitudes, that were all crawling as thoughts into my mind.
My inner consciousness was covered with dirt and it made me look dark and ugly inside.
It was apparent to me that thinking wrong about others and voicing out my judgments had only left me dirty and ugly. Dwelling on others’ weaknesses isolates me from them and also undermines my self-worth and value.
This seemed like a sudden awakening from a deep sleep of ignorance. I understood why so many new philosophies and technologies appear in the market these days, trying to encourage leaders and managers to improve the positivity in their mind.
It reminded me of what someone said “why are we so much interested in listening to the negative side of others, in the form of gossips.” We feel a sense of power though judgments. The ugly truth is that, when we watch the suffering of others from our comfort zone, we unconsciously feel better about ourselves and embrace our hurt and pain, saying it is not so bad after all. By every single judgment that I create, I pat myself that I am better than them.
I have let the positive side of me become paralysed by noticing the negative side of others and blaming on others. Thereby I was cruel to myself.
Any responsible home maker or owner of the house has a responsibility to keep every corner of the house clean and clear the piled up garbage. Now who is going to clean my inner mind?
I could clearly hear my inner voice say I have to start doing it today, so I have decided to allocate at least 15 to 30 minutes every day before I start my busy schedule.
I promised to myself, “May I wake up each morning with a commitment of being happy, the whole day”.
I sat quietly; went deep within myself slowly, and I emerged with the painful memories of the past. I forgave myself for keeping them for so long and for the self inflicted pain caused.
I let go of the memories with the feelings of forgiveness or understanding.
I reminded myself gently how I would wish to be treated when I have made a mistake. I thought of how I will feel when someone let go of my past and offered me a fresh start.
I visualised healing in relationships if I have the humility to let go of judgments. It took time but it was my priority to remove one thorn after the other, and it was actually helping me in relieving the pain. I slowly enjoyed myself doing that, like grooming my little garden.
It gave a sense of pleasure to watch my “self blossoming”. There were also many unwanted seeds thrown by others which grew as weeds and became part of me and grew as deep rooted belief systems in me. I removed those weeds one by one.
I have also collected and kept stones, big and small in the form of verbal accusations, opinions, judgments and various deeds of others done unto me that have made my heart feel heavy.
This heaviness made me cry through many sleepless nights.
Today, I decided to rise to a new dawn. I sowed the seeds of thoughts that would bring joyful fruits.
I nurtured the flowers of virtues, and I observed them blooming into various situations.
I noticed that my every interaction was filled with sweetness in words and the fragrance of positivism in vibrations.
Since my attention was regular, I started to notice my own specialities. The list of specialities started to grow and expanded to the depth as it reveled.
In this process, I consciously educated myself to see the specialties in others. It made me feel good, I felt lighter.
Does it mean I see only the good and remain blind to the bad? No, I see both positive and the negative but then, let go of the negative.
Why should I add to the negativity?
Let my response be coloured by my own speciality rather than repeating the same act of others as a re-action. I have started to feel like a bouquet of virtues.
To be this, all I had to do was to learn the art of landscaping my mind, by dedicating a little attention to it on a regular basis and maintain my inner space through meditation.