“When the Inner Garden is under cultivation and God’s Spirit is present, harvests are regular events. The fruits? Things like courage, hope, love, endurance, joy, and lots of peace.” ― Ordering Your Private World
We all have an inner garden, the bible calls it our inner man, made up of our soul and spirit. Although our bodes are essential for life on this earth, its our inner self that is our true self. It tends to our well-being. Discovering ways to cultivate that inner garden only serves to ensure the health of this invisible but important side of life.
Writing, is one way I tend to my garden. I learned this by first tending to the writings of my Father after he passed. I saw the value in capturing thoughts and stories as I curated the remnants of Dad’s inner garden.
Tending To Another’s Inner Garden
The result was a self-published a book, a compilation of things he wrote. It was was compiled in 2000 a few months after my father died.
Dad was a rather private person including his writing. It was more a journal of thoughts that came out as letters to friends, poems and poetry, and stories about people he met.
Some were written at painful times, others recorded gratitude and times of joy. The writing was random yet thoughtful. Dad guardedly shared some of these recorded thoughts with family and friends, but entrusted this body of work to me just before he died.
At it’s first go, the compiling was a vehicle allowing me to stay, for a time, close to Dad and to process the grief of loosing him. Other opportunities came to continue the process and, as it should, the pain of his departure dimmed. The sense of loss gave way to a quiet joy of knowing, really knowing he was at peace.
That first “book”, a simple word document assembled in loose leaf style and photocopied, went to immediate family. I presented copies at a family gathering on Memorial Day weekend 2000, a few months after Dad was laid to rest.
More to Come
I have two companion books in the works. One is a biography. The other will be a similar format to The Writings Of HANCOCK centering on the diary Dad kept when he drove a truck from Kansas to Costa Rica to gift to the Mission.
A trip to Costa Rica in 2015 provided context to the latter project. The dedication for the Costa Rica truck book reads: “I dedicate this book to all who never thought they were doing anything special, but who’s life demonstrated the extraordinary in the ordinary.“
In the meantime, The Writings of HANCOCK is available for Purchase here.
Please take a look at The Writings of HANCOCK today. It will inspire and encourage you to recognize, live extraordinary in the ordinary and to begin to capture your stories.
In fact, Click Here For a free download of types of legacy stories you can capture today!