Mindfulness Garden Games
by Joann Calabrese
author of Growing Mindful

Change as Mindfulness Focus

      75 degrees is the high today in Denver, but it will change to cold and snow overnight.  I’ve pulled in all the green tomatoes, green beans, and basil, and covered hardier plants with frost cloth. Gardeners constantly have their eyes on the weather and know that it can be unpredictable, with quick … Read more

Hope In Action

  Hope in Action is the mindfulness focus this week, inspired by seeds forming on fading garden plants. I think there are more seed heads than flowers in the garden right now.  Cosmos, calendula, echinecea, marigolds, sunflowers, and zinnias…seeds are everywhere. Seeds always seem hopeful to me. They represent new life even as the plant … Read more

Return to Center – Mindfulness Focus Words

    Return to Center – this week’s mindfulness focus was inspired by my tiny goji berry plant that is not actually dead. Denver was brutally hot the weeks I was away.  And when I returned all the leaves had shriveled and fallen off.  I chalked it up to one more sad thing. But this … Read more

Courage 2.0 – Reaching Deeper With Mindful Focus

Courage is the mindfulness focus word for the week, inspired by borage (Borago officinalis) in flower throughout my yard.  Even though I’ve worked with courage as a focus word already this year, the borage plants and life events are calling me to revisit the concept. About Borage Borage has a strong association with courage.  According … Read more

Seeing with Child Eyes – Mindfulness Focus This Week

  Challenges of Writing I promised myself at the beginning of the year that I would create a blog post every Sunday, with a focus on gardens and mindfulness.  It has been a positive endeavor for the most part, but the year has been challenging and some posts have been hard to write just because … Read more

Summer Solstice as Mindfulness Focus

    The obvious choice for this week’s mindfulness focus is the summer solstice, which takes place mid-week.(1) (Although maybe I am just looking for a reason to post a picture of the Stonehenge I created in Minecraft, as I am quite proud of it.) Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year and … Read more

Wisdom as Mindfulness Focus

        Wisdom is the mindfulness focus word for the week, inspired by sage ( Salvia officinalis). Sage is flowering now in various places around my yard. The shrubby plant has soft strongly scented leaves and tiny lipped purplish-blue flowers whorled around many stems. It is loved by bees and drought tolerant, making … Read more

Mindfully Seeking Quiet Beauty

      Quiet Beauty is the mindfulness concept for the week, inspired by comfrey (Symphytum officinale).  Comfrey is blooming in my garden right now and it is the kind of plant that most people don’t pay attention to.   The world is a pretty loud and noisy place.  The things that get our attention … Read more

Making Peace with the Messiness of Gardens & Life

        This week’s mindfulness concept was inspired by the irises blooming in my yard.  When I first moved into my Denver home, a friend offered me iris tubers. I was happy to have them and assumed she was simply thinning hers, which needs to be done periodically. But no… she  told me … Read more

Impermanence – This Week’s Mindfulness Focus Word

    Impermanence is the focus word this week, inspired by the loss of my tiny pears and apples that were just forming on trees. I was relieved two weeks ago when they made it through a severe Denver cold snap. And I wrongly assumed we were over the worst of the cold. During the … Read more

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