Garden of your mind

My friend helped me discover this awesome remix of Mr. Rogers' song, "Garden of your Mind". It's original message, so simple and yet powerful, comes through brimming with extra oomph and crackle by way of this delightful mash up.

I also just came across this thoughtful piece, For Mr. Rogers on his birthday,written by Pensive Person on opensalon.com which speaks to the impact Mr. Rogers had on a generation (or more) of preschoolers and our need for a similar leader and leadership style in these new, uncertain times. Both pieces reminded me about this leader that was often ridiculed and, unfortunately, not aspired to enough.

Mr. Rogers was gentle, graceful and curious, all attributes we don't even always look for in a leader, and then we wonder why our leaders disappoint us so. What qualities are we looking for anyway?

*Mister Rogers remixed by Symphony of Science's John Boswell for PBS Digital Studios, as seen on youtube.

Fred Rogers had it going on. Nourish your neighbour, he said, take care of others and yourself and grow through curiosity. He said, “It's not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It's the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff.”

His persistent belief in the awesome potential of little humans emerging into the great big world did not have to be flashy or strobe lighty to be revolutionary. We little humans grew up and some of us have little kids to raise and nuture, he led us to know that we were worthwhile so we could grow up and be able to do the same for our wee companions and others in our lives.

What little seeds are we planting in those little gardens?

Comments

I entered August without you.

I won't visit you this month. You won't call. I will raid your garden and you won't get any of the vegetables. I will make plans without telling you about them. We'll go to the store and not buy you one single thing. Whole books will be read and I will not tell you which ones. I will watch movies and not inform you. The nasturiums will ripen. Last month was different. I changed my schedule and took time off work to be with you. I dropped all kinds of plans for us to be together. You sent me messages, I received them. I picked up food that I thought you would like at the store and sent you pictures of every beautiful thing I saw. I sang with you. We watched the Great Canadian Baking Show. You chose the recipe for the garlic scape pesto and gave me instructions for making the gooseberry jam. I am in August without you. You are in July.

Fists full of lettuce

It is a pot of a variety of lettuce plants. It was planted by my mom. She has been living with Stage 4 bile duct cancer for at least 1.5 years (that we know of, probably a lot longer). Standing and gardening are becoming harder as time goes on. She learned about gardening from her dad as a kid and kept on gardening every year of her adult life. Sometimes the gardens were tiny or rudimentary, but with the help of my dad , they have become major and, at times elaborate, growing projects over the years. Now it is a collection of raised beds and regular beds that hold a host of plants, vegetable and flowers. Something that was clear that first spring with Stage 4 cancer is that gardening would continue in a big way, cancer or no cancer. It was important to order the seeds and start them inside and get them planted outside, no matter what. Spending time together in the summer with cancer now consistently involves gardening and following instructions. Plant...

Keep telling yourself that.

We talk to ourselves everyday, all day (and night) for the whole of our lives. We started talking to ourselves before we knew we were a self, we forget what we said because we forget everything from before...when we were too young and busy developing our brain to remember those early years. There is still lingering residue of long forgotten conversations I have had with myself as a toddler sitting around in the crevices...sloughing off occasionally into words I tell myself still. We talk non-stop, and not just with dialogue. Our goosebumps communicate to us, our tingly feelings, our neurons, our peripheal vision. They are all submitting data into our self and expecting us to react, respond or all to often, expecting what they are sending us will be ignored. After all that talking, you'd think we'd know what we think about most things, but occasionally we are stumped. Unless we stop what we are doing and really concentrate sometimes that voice(s) ...

Growing Versions

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