Secret Gardens
Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go.
~Louise Driscoll
The Secret Garden written by Frances Hodgson Burnett and published in 1911 is one of my favorite stories. If you’re not familiar or it’s been a while, the story is about Mary Lennox, a 10-year-old girl at the turn of the 20th century. Mary is a rather demanding, self-centered and spoilt little girl who after her parents died from the cholera epidemic is sent to England to live with her uncle who lives in a large English country manor house. Mary makes it very well known by her rude behavior how unhappy she is with her new home and the people living in it.
So what can we learn from a children’s story 110 years after it was first published? Well, without giving away the entire story, the Secret Garden is about redemption, the redemption of Mary and Colin, a little boy she becomes friends with. Over the course of time, Mary also befriends her maid who tells her the story of Lilias who would spend hours in a private stone walled garden growing beautiful roses. Sadly, Lilias dies after an accident in the garden and Mary’s devastated uncle locks the garden and buries the key. The story piques Mary’s curiosity to where we see her setting out to find the secret garden. It’s during this time that we see her attitude beginning to transform to that of being kinder and gentler.
SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT *** Mary does find the secret garden and Colin becomes her partner in crime in bringing back to life the abandoned and overgrown garden hidden behind the stone wall. The revival of the garden becomes an empowering and inspiring metaphor for the restoration of Mary and Colin, a restoration that some may even say is rather miraculous!
How many of us can relate to needing restoration? I know I can and do on a regular basis. Like motivation, restoration is perishable and needs to be replenished.
We all have a secret garden in our lives whether or not we choose to admit or acknowledge it. While ours may not be of the English countryside, hidden behind a stone wall variety, it does exist in the form of parallel realities with one of the best examples being abundance and lack, both of which exist simultaneously in our lives. Our conscious choice then becomes, which secret garden will we tend? Will it be the one with the invisible thick, dark, harsh underbrush, overrun with briers and thorns holding us back in our own thoughts? Or will we choose to not focus on what is missing from our lives, letting the wasteland fall away so we can focus on the abundance that already exists – God, family, friends, work, love, health and personal pursuits that bring us joy and happiness in the real lives we live each day.
The way something is neglected withers and dies but when it is worked on and cared for, it thrives just like Mary and Colin did. Let’s use the metaphor of gardening to dig out the old weeds of contention, disappointments, frustrations, faded ambitions, expectations not fulfilled, and anger about what has gone before or what has not yet come. Those emotional weeds choke out so much of the richness and beauty of our life. Eradicate those destructive bugs and create a space of joy within your heart.
Don’t neglect your inner secret garden but rather tend to it because the seeds that will bloom in outward expression are the same seeds that are scattered within first. As you nourish your inner secret garden, let an unencumbered imagination sow seeds of possibility in the rich and fertile soil of your soul. May it be passion that tends your secret garden with patience and perseverance, and may you flourish and bloom abundantly.
