Find your garden-space deep inside your heart
Trim the dead limbs and pull the weeds.
Mow the grasses and find that one special spot
And prepare a new sacred garden.
Ask the Earth to gift you the soil and mulch,
Then ask for a sacred seed to plant deep within.
Once planted, ask the Sky for the purest of waters,
That will feed and bring forth that potential.
Then with convictions and sincerity
Say your prayers and affirmations out loud,
Letting the sound of your voice feed this new life.
Then you must care for this new way,
Prune and water and help it grow,
Harvest the fruits, share the bounty.
Then replant the seeds and create an orchard
That can then feed the whole community.
And through all of this hard, fulfilling work,
You will teach others how to be gardeners, too.
This is my journey
— Nate Long “Owl”
mixed-media with digital manipulation