Video - Sunday's ART of Truth - "So, plant your own flowers..."- 2/19/23

Hello friends, welcome to Sunday’s ART of Truth. Today, I am working in my 2023 Mixed Media Journal.

This week, my inspiration comes from a quote I read in Bella Grace Magazine. It said – “So, plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul…instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers” – Jorge Luis Borges. I will link the magazine below.

The secondary inspiration was the image of this barefoot girl holding a basket of flowers. The layers, oh, the layers in this journal spread! The colors I chose are some of my favorites and complimented the sweet image of this girl. Words of truth stenciled, creating additional interest and mystery. I was surprised when I was done, I was still able to see every layer, including the base layer. Yellow is my favorite color and always makes me happy.

When I read the quote, I was struck by how deeply it spoke to me. I have spent most of my life waiting for someone to rescue me. Hoping for someone to fix me. To bring me happiness. To make me feel whole and complete. To give me the answers. Slowly, over time and through my counseling journey, I learned that this is not possible.

Of course, when we are children, we want and deserve rescue. When it doesn’t come, in many ways, we learn to plant our own garden (safe and beautiful places) As a child, I learned to decorate my own soul. I plastered my internal reality with beauty, happiness, and safety. I created places where there was no pain, no danger, no injury. This was good. This was smart.

However, I outgrew it.

My husband came along when I was 15 years old. He was my Knight in Shining Armor. He showed me unconditional love. He told me I was beautiful and worthy and loved. He made it possible to begin to open my heart and soul. Looking back, even at the tender age of 15, I saw him as the one who would make me whole. He would love me enough that I would be enough, and I would be happy.

He did a good job. I love him. However, it wasn’t his job. It cost him. It was worth it. He would tell you it was worth it. He is imperfect and beautiful.

As I pursued healing, I learned that no one could do that for me. No one could fill the hole I felt in my very soul.

Slowly, very slowly, I began to learn that it was my job heal and take ownership of my own happiness. That is not to say that I think I could do this alone. No way. I still needed people. A wise man once told me that we are wounded IN relationship, and we heal IN relationship.

It took me a very long time to grasp this idea.

It is still a journey. It is still hard.

I used to cry out to God and beg him to fill the whole in my soul, while at the same time, believing that it could not be filled.

Could he do it? Absolutely.

Did he? In small ways, he moved me closer and closer to the keys that would bring the healing I had sought after.

I often remind myself that we are wounded IN relationship, we heal IN relationship. Beautiful, at best. Scary as hell, at worst.

Possible? Yes. Definitely, yes.

Many precious people have come and gone from my life, each leaving their love mark. Each leaving me with a lesson and a bunch of goodies, and I, in return. While hope and life was given and received, nothing/no one filled the hole.

Why? Because we must plant our own gardens and decorate our own soul, INSTEAD of waiting for someone ELSE to bring us flowers.

To plant our own gardens means to tend to our lives. Also, it means making things happen for us. It also means we create the beauty that we want to live in. It means choosing who and what we plant. Above all else, to me, it means taking ownership. While I put my faith in Papa God, I have a participatory part to play.

What does it mean to decorate our own souls? For me, it means deciding what we let in and what we feed it. How do we treat ourselves? How do we talk to ourselves when no one is around? What do we ALLOW to get plastered to the walls of our heart and soul? Do we let other people do that? Do we allow untruths about who we are to be what we see and feel all day and all night? Or do we take ownership there too?

Earlier, I referred to how I planted my garden and decorated my soul as a child. That was to survive, not to LIVE.

Now I live.

Now I choose to own all of it.

Now I welcome people into my life because I choose how I decorate and what beauty is around me.

My friends, you know I cannot write my ART of Truth without measurable depth. It is who I am. It is how I was made. It is how I heal. It is deep and not simplistic.

Again, we are all after different stages of healing and hurt. Some of us are still badly bruised and leaking a bloody heart of sorrows. Some of us are ‘on the other side’ of the hardest things.

No matter where you are or what you are dealing with, I hope that you find beautiful things to plant in your garden. I pray that you are present and honoring of all that is you. I long for you to decorate your souls with beautiful things of truth and love.

I also hope that someone DOES bring you flowers. That is the icing on the cake. It is the cherry on top. It is a grateful freebie.

May you seek and find peace, inspiration, and everything else that you need to blossom and grow.

Be beautiful & blessed,

Beloved-Reborn

Supply list under photos!