Only a Rose . . .

I love to garden. Gardening is good for my soul, my mind, my heart and my body. As I headed into my garage after a full day of running errands today, my garden called me. I had to see if my newly planted trees needed a drink of water. The roses captured my attention. So I stopped to smell the roses. I ended up trimming the rosebush and picking a few blossoms to place around my home. They graced our table tonight while Vincent and I had dinner. I have another vase of them near me here in my living room as well.

Rose bushes like to be trimmed. I was taught to cut the blossom just above the first set of 5 leaves. It is said to promote healthy growth and more blossoms. It's also important to dead head rose bushes. Dead heading is not related to the Grateful Dead in this case. It means that one should take off the dead blossoms or the rosehips.

It's a similar concept to removing the dead wood or that which is no longer useful. By removing the dead flowers or branches allows for the energy of the plant to go to new growth and creating new blossoms. Likewise, use this gardening tip for your life. Remove what is no longer working or draining of energy so that the new may bloom in your life. There are numerous analogies relating to gardening literally that are lessons in spiritual and personal growth.

A good example of this is the story, The Secret Garden, which is one of my favorite children's novels. Actually it's a novel or story for all ages. This novel has been made into a movie - more than once. The story of The Secret Garden was the inspiration for the name of my store, The Crystal Garden. I wanted to create a place where people could go to heal, to feel safe and to have a magical experience. Take the time to read this book and then visit The Crystal Garden. You'll pick up on the analogy.



It's glorious weather here in South Florida today. I think our high was 71 degrees and sunny. Paradise does exist. If you ever want to have a spiritual vacation, come to Boynton Beach to go to the beach, enjoy the glorious weather and attend all types of classes at The Crystal Garden.

Sending you roses and sunshine,

Margaret

Sleeping again

Thank goodness I am sleeping again. My good friend, Sandi, posted a comment on my trouble sleeping post. I have found that once my stress level is reduced I sleep better. And, if I awaken now at 2 or 3 am . . . or whenever, I find that I am using it to work on my book when the world around me is very quiet. This works well as long as I don't have to get up early and out of the house early the next day. I did that writing in the "Witching Hours" as Sandi put it and found that I was very tuned in and really accomplished quite a bit. I didn't have to get up the next day, so I went back to sleep at around 5 am slept til 9:32 am and felt great all day!

I just finished teaching Crystal Healer Level 1 at The Crystal Garden. What a great group we were! We laughed quite a lot. My staff wanted to know if my class had turned into a comedy club. So we laughed, we learned, we cried, we meditated and we laugh some more. I'll be teaching the Level 1 of the Crystal Healer Certification in 2 weeks at the Self-Enrichment Center in Coral Gables (Miami), Florida (www.self-enrichmentcenter.com). I am looking forward to teaching it at Soul Journey in Butler, New Jersey in April (www.souljourney.com) then at Spark of Spirit in College Park, MD (Washington, D.C. area) in May (www.sparkofspirit.com). You can always go to my Where's Margaret? link on my website to see where I will be. If you are interested, that is! I will be traveling out to Washington State to speak at East West Bookshop in Seattle, WA as well as Wise Awakenings in Bellingham, WA and The Healing Haven in Astoria, OR. That should be a nice tour. I tour to teach, do private sessions and promote my CDs which are Guided Meditation CDs. Soon I'll be promoting my book! How exciting! I'll tell more as it unfolds.

I have been doing well on Jenny Craig. I have incorporated more meals on my own as the processed food sure does have a lot of preservatives. I am using the lymphatic patches as I melt away the pounds to detox the toxins being released with my fat cells. I've slimmed down by 7 pounds in just under 3 weeks. That's great! Yay!

Blessings,
Margaret