Acceptance at Tending Your Inner Garden

This week I received a contract from Tending Your Inner Garden for a poem to be used in their book Spring. The poem titled “Abdication” is about the transitions in my mother-in-law’s kitchen, a metaphor for entering a new stage of living. It was painful to write when I penned the lines; it still freezes a moment in time for me. The editor told me that my details allowed her to hear the clinking of dishes, to smell yeasty rolls. Just what a writer wants to hear!

The book editors have had the poem for nearly a year as I submitted it for Winter, but the editors held it for future use. I am happy to be in this anthology because the blog and newsletter of TYIG are very uplifting. Here is what they post on their blog at http://tendingyourinnergarden.com: The Tending Your Inner Garden® program invites you to discover your deeper self and your relationship with all that is sacred. Using the seasons as a model for change, we help you develop a spiritual practice, tuning in to your own inner guidance so you can live in alignment with your true self. Join our community of women for support and friendship as you dig deeper and grow what you want most in your life.

If you go to the Tending Your Inner Garden, you can sign up for a newsletter sent to your email address. It is always an interesting piece to read even if you do not want to follow the blog or read at the website. The editors draw from many traditions and share tidbits that help readers find their own definition of sacred, enhance their own creativity or maybe just face fears. It is women helping women.

Speaking of women helping women, I just finished my book for the September book club which is A Train in Winter. This was a hard book to read for the subject matter and for the French names since I do not have any French background. This detailed and minutely reached book follows women of the French Resistance during WWII once they are caught and sent to the camps. Many were turned in by fellow Frenchmen, very disheartening information. Then in the camps…the writer details daily life including every horror possible. I have read a lot of WWII literature, but this book held new tortures and sufferings for me to ponder. The overriding theme is that women formed groups that men prisoners did not. They bonded, supported each other in any way possible, and they thrived by sticking together. Lots of thought-provoking material here if you can stomach the sad truths revealed!