Tending your Own Garden

My dear friends, we love you so very much,

If you were to watch your neighbor’s garden and point out every weed, every plant, and every fruit, you might be able to help them grow an abundant yield. If they appreciated and valued your efforts and took your advice, they might benefit greatly from your attention. But regardless of whether or not they made use of your freely offered wisdom, your own garden would most likely suffer. You would let the weeds grow tall and miss the crops bearing fruit if your attention were focused elsewhere. And while you might find greater satisfaction in helping another than tending your own garden, there’s no guarantee they would welcome your advice.

This analogy is a lot like life, dear friends. It is very easy to place your attention on the lives and antics of other human beings. This is why your reality shows are so popular. This is why the news captures your attention. This is why social media can be so fascinating. So many of you are fascinated by the choices others make and how they are living their lives. This curiosity about others is wonderful if you see it as a way to understand diversity, enjoy contrast, and clarify who you want to be in this life. If you watch a hundred different gardeners, you’ll quickly learn what resonates with you and how you want to grow your own garden.

But where observing others becomes detrimental is when you feel you must save, fix, correct, or criticize. Any time you feel responsible for another’s life or choices, you risk wobbling away from your own center.

Many of you want to be helpful. Many of you can give good advice. It’s common to feel that you know what is good for another, what they should or shouldn’t be doing, and how they should behave. Sometimes you’re right. Sometimes your advice is something their soul would agree with. Sometimes you can shine light upon their challenges in ways that could make their lives easier.

But whether or not your wisdom is worth gold, if unsolicited, it may or may not be valued. They may or may not listen. And their response has no bearing on the worth of your wisdom in your own life.

If more of you would spend more time tending your own gardens and worrying a little less about what everyone else is doing, you’d find greater peace, joy, and satisfaction in your lives.

You’d stop judging your worth by whether others value your offerings.

You’d no longer feel like a failure if you couldn’t help someone see the light, love, or talent you see within them.

And you’d no longer feel bitter, resentful, or used if someone you’ve been trying to help didn’t value your generosity of spirit.

Instead, you’d live a life guided by your own heart, lived by your own values, and rooted in your own truths. You’d be happier, healthier, and more at one with your spirit.

And while you are all lovers—seeking to help and uplift those around you—you do so best when your own cup is full, when your own heart is satisfied, when your body is strong, and your mind is at peace.  Even when you are not in those spaces, you still have great love to offer. You still have wisdom, kindness, and talent. But dear ones, it’s far better to elevate yourself as best you can and then pour from a fuller cup, than to drain yourself and have nothing left to give.

Even when you have dependents—children or the elderly—it’s imperative to take care of your own basic needs physically and emotionally, so you can truly give the care you desire to share. This doesn’t always require huge amounts of time. You can find ways to eat food that nourishes you, to get gentle movement for your body, to take a few minutes to pray or sit with your angels and receive our love, or to light a candle and watch its flickering flame in silence for a few moments before a busy day.

The life force streaming from the Divine to you is your greatest asset. It’s more important than money in the bank because it is the constant source of your abundance. It is greater than the approval of others because its love is always flowing. It can transform situations in an instant that might otherwise take days, weeks, or even years with your own effort.

This light inside of you, and this life force flowing to you, are worth protecting and maintaining. Just as you would protect the flame of a candle in the wind, it’s important to tend to your spirit—especially in trying times. Fill your own cup before spilling it, even if only for a few minutes each day. Value those moments of precious silence amidst the noise of daily life.Be kind to your body, even when you must “eat on the run.”

You can find ways to tend to your mind, body, and soul. You can do this far more easily when you pay attention to your own life and the garden of your own heart, rather than focusing on your neighbors, the news, or others not in your care. You can hear us and receive our assistance more easiy when you are at peace.

So, as you observe the antics of those around you—family, coworkers, figures on the news—take a breath. Remind yourself that God is with them too. They have the inner resources to solve their own problems. They have an inner compass that can guide them to love, if they listen.  Ultimately, whether loving or not, they will learn from their choices, either here on this earth or in the afterlife.

If you wish to offer advice, offer it—but don’t demand it be followed. Don’t judge if it isn’t received. And dear ones, don’t waste your time fuming over behaviors you cannot change. Feel your feelings. Acknowledge your loving heart. Then bless them and pray for them, but turn your focus back to your own life, your own sphere of influence, and your own tribe. Share your love and wisdom where it’s welcome.

Every soul must ultimately find and take responsibility for their own path. And you, dear ones, have not failed anyone if your advice goes unheard. You have not abdicated your responsibility if you allow those you cannot control to follow their own course and learn from it.

Tend to your own garden, dear friends, and you will reap the abundant harvest of love, joy, peace, and a life well-lived. Let everyone else find their own way. When the Divine sees that you can authentically help someone in a way that uplifts you too, they will be sent to you with an open mind and open heart. Until then, grant yourselves grace.

Relieve yourselves of the responsibility of changing the world from the outside in, and instead begin to change it from the inside out.

God Bless You! We love you so very much.
— The Angels