What's in Your Garden?

We use the word foodie to describe someone who delights in the adventure of a culinary experience.  It doesn’t seem too far a stretch, then, to propose the term ‘wordie’ to describe someone who marvels over well crafted words the same way a foodie savors creative and unexpected flavors.  I’m not a foodie, but I am a wordie.  I feel inspired when I read words strung together in a way that capture life’s complexities, simply.  

During a recent random scroll through social media, I came across a post entitled “20 Quotes from Children’s Books Every Adult Should know”.  Upon first read, I understood the main theme to be about the importance of having hope.  Studied more closely, I realized that each quote speaks to a different value ; values that, when lived into, function as seeds for cultivating hope (listed in bold below). 20 quotes, 20 seeds, 20 paths to healing what’s broken.

You only need one seed to start a garden.  Which one can you imagine planting today?:

1. “Promise me you’ll remember, you are BRAVER than you believe, STRONGER than you seem, and SMARTER than you think.”
(A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh)
COURAGE

2. “A person’s a person no matter how small.”
(Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who)
COMPASSION

3. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
(Aesop, The Lion and the Mouse)
GENEROSITY

4. “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard.”
(A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh)
GRATITUDE

5. “If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
(Roald Dahl, The Twits)
POSITIVITY

6. “You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.  You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.  And you’re the one who’ll decide where to go.”
(Dr. Seuss, Oh the Places You’ll Go)
AUTONOMY

7. “How much good inside a day?  Depends how much you live ‘em.  How much good inside a friend?  Depends how much you give ‘em.”
(Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic)
WISDOM

8. “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince)
INTUITION

9. “There’s no place like home”
(L. Frank Braum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
CONNECTION

10. Piglet:
“How do you spell love?”
Pooh:
“You don’t spell it, you feel it.”
(A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh)
JOY

11. “Why did you do all this for me?” he asked.  ‘I don’t deserve it.  I’ve never done anything for you’.  ‘You have been my friend’, replied Charlotte.  That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
(E.B. White, Charlotte’s Webb)
APPRECIATION

12. “Numbing the pain for a while will only make it worse when you finally FEEL IT.”
(J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
VULNERABILITY

13. “The moment where you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever being able to do it.” 
(J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan)
POSITIVE SELF-TALK

14. “Listen to the mustn’ts, child.  Listen to the don’ts.  Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts.  Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me…anything can happen, child.  Anything can be.”
(Shel Silverstein)
FAITH

15. “Above all, watch with glittering eyes the world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
(Roald Dahl, The Minpins)
WONDER

16. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not.”
(Dr. Seuss, The Lorax)
TRUTH

17. “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.  You find the fun and the job’s a game.”
(P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins)
ATTITUDE

18. “The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.”
(Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
LETTING GO

19. “It’s no use to go back to yesterday because I was a different person then”
(Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland)
FORGIVENESS

20. “Sometimes”, said Pooh; “the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” (A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh)
SIMPLICITY