Omaha daily bee., 1915-03-17
Garden of Our Soul
BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX.

II YOU owned a garden plot OF rich,
fertile soil would you trust to chance
winds to bear seeds to It? or would you
deliberately SOW it with tangling weeds
or even dull and unfragrant flowers?
.Neverg you cry, and again Never"
But YOU do own a garden plot of the
richest and most fertile soil imaginable
"a garden plot teeming with sustenance
for lovely flowers and wonderful foliage,
gracious in shadow and dappled with
sunlight. In your possession is the finest
gardens for planting well chosen seeds.
That garden is your own soul.
am not over romantic or rashly
I idealistic when / tell you that Of your
own nature you may make a glorious
garden l am just making a picture for
you of a fact.
Exactly in the way a wise gardener
Cultivates his plot-freeng 1t from weeds
and training to growth the flowers and
fruits he loves, you may tend the garden
of your mind and soul. Whether you
cultivate or neglect your nature It still
must produce something. Why not direct
the process-and intelligently direct 1t
TO boot7
The very first thing 20 do is to so
a-weeding Root up useless unkind, ell
Nious. disconnected, impure and selfish
thoughts. They choke the ground in
which you might be cultivating wonder
fuI bloom. They tangle their way about
the flowers that try to grow up TO sun
shine-and destroy them. Up then the
weeds must come They can't grow II
you refuse them ground and sustenance'
A Jealous thought can't think itself
You have to nourish the weedlike idea
that blows into your mind or It cannot
take root. Don't think wrong thoughts
lust push them back into the void from
which they came. Root them out OF your
garden.
The wind OF circumstance will blow
YOU where it lists and buffet yoi about
only so long as you think yourself into
its power. II you let events blow weeds
into your garden and complain about
!. your inability to grow flowers OF course
YOU will have a waste of weeds.
If YOU let circumstances suggest trains
Of thought and action to you, and never
try to direct your thinking and DONG
into useful channels, your life must be a
waste Of weeds, too. Isn't that logical?
Every seed of thought you allow to fall
into your mind and to take root there
will produce its natural fruitage. from
thistles, thistes come; from wheat
wheat It takes no expert in gardening
To tell YOU that. Big fine thoughts can
never produce mean, petty actions
Thoughts that are mean and petty can
not produce actions that are fine and big
Everyone understands this in the world
of nature Everyone works along the
line to this knowledge. The puzzle is how
can anyone fail to apply it to the
world of his own mentality as we'll?
Good thoughts bear good fruit. The
crop YOU harvest from evil thoughts can
not be evil.
The proof Of this lies in your own nap
turc. 1t is from his crop of one year
that the gardner learns wisdom to Gull
tivate more wisely better harvest OF
fruits and flowers for the next year.
Now il you will just weed the evil out of
your mind and set about oultivsting one
SCI of fine ideas and ideals, you will be
astonished and delighted to observe the
transformation this will bring about in
your life.
The way of II IL this Thought de-
yclops naturally into action; action re-
peated few times grows to habit.
Habit molds circumstance.
suppose you begin to think work what
ever it Isl uncongenial. You do it halt
heartedly. Presently you become a lazy
shirker. Aud you are all too likely to
grow into one Of lifes miserable failures.
Failure you need never have been IL sue
cess had been in your thought. You had
only to think of growth and industry and
advancement to win them some time.
If your actual, physical garden is one
seranium in pot or a farm Of acres you
apply to it the best OF care-sun-light
fresh air. the wedding out of useless
GrOwths and careful nurture of blossoms
Is your own nature any less important
than a geranium in pot or a GLASGOW.
cred greenhouse?