bloodsong1 | Simple Abundance Exercise (Reply)

Garden. Sarah is in the garden in old clothes, digging into a bed of black thorny bushes and thick creeping vines. One small bush and a handful of vines lay broken nearby. The rest of the garden is either dormant, dead or showing healthy growth. The healthy growth is about 30% and concentrated in a few beds of spring flowers and a pair of lilac bushes. True Blue arrives in an ivory dress with a scattering of flower sprigs.

"Oh. You're working on THAT section."

It needs the work. Sarah drives her shovel deep into the ground and grunts as another vine tears free. An anguished scream echoes through the garden. True Blue winces. Sarah tosses the vine onto the pile and wipes her forehead. It keeps DOING that!

"You're hurting yourself."

But I want it OUT! I'm sick and tired of the vines trying to crush my heart with despair and the damned bushes trying to overwhelm me into Indigo. Sarah kicks the closest bush and swears when it stabs her ankle with a dozen thorns.

"Tearing out her heart won't make Indigo disappear."

What? This is her heart? Sarah asks, dumbfounded.

"This is YOUR Secret Garden. Everything you are is represented here. Your dreams have their beds, your ambitions climb the walls and your darkness digs deep into the soil. You can't destroy Indigo, because she IS you."

Can't I...change it? Make it prettier or transform the plants or something?

"In time."

So digging all of this out and putting in new plants isn't going to work.

"No. You have to care for what's there and contain it."

Grrrr. Sarah stabs her shovel into the small patch of cleared soil. Two vines surge to seize it and she yanks it back out, slapping the vines with the base. They flinch back. All right. I'll work with you. What do you need?

An image rises from the tangles and thorns. She's the mirror image of Sarah and True Blue, but her face and body are covered in scratches and puncture wounds. Her hair is matted and tangled, her face drawn and her eyes haunted. Sarah pinches the bridge of her nose.

Aurora. Of course. Bloody hell.

"You're already working on her. Help her catch up to you in Ah Moneypenny and this bed will heal."

What about the rest of it? Do I need to wave a magic wand to revive those? Sarah asks, pointing to the skeletal remains of several rose bushes.

"Love is its own magic, you know that." True Blue winks. Sarah stalks over and peers closely at the bushes. Each bush has baby leaves poking out near the bottom. Sarah straightens and glares at the dead wood.

I'm not ready to cut him out.

"Work on the rest of the garden and the rose bushes will respond." Sarah looks around. There's more growth then she realized, some of it hidden under the dead wood or leaf litter. In fact, there's only a few beds that need serious work; the vines and thorns, the rose bushes and the cluster of exotic, tropical flowers.

My depression, my heart and I have no idea what that third bed is.

"You'll figure it out."

Bloody hell.