*

*

Your life-being is a garden.

 Your spirit is the gardener.

*

Build a fence around your garden.

Imagine it: curling wrought iron,

split rail, chain link.

Make it unbreakable.

*

Be sure to put in a gate.

*

You choose what to plant:

vegetables that nourish the body?

fruit trees for life’s sweetness?

flowers to pleasure the soul?

*

You decide who can come in.

*

Will you open the gate

to Fear and Doubt?

They may dig up your seeds.

*

Will you let Worry

Into your garden?

She may spoil the flowers

and chew up the leaves.

*

What about Criticism

and Judgement?

Like a hailstorm

they can destroy everything.

*

Others you may invite to stay:

Joy in her bonnet of fireflies

Love with its scarlet ladybugs. Peace,

sleeping under the squash leaves.

*

So, beloveds, remember:

You are the gardener.

You

choose

who

comes

in.