I was browsing through my Facebook timeline a few days ago when I came across this meme:

I realized I am still one of those people that take life's slogans with a grain of salt. I don't really contemplate the messages. Most of them drift through my consciousness with as much weight as a box of packing peanuts. But the other day a meme's casual reference became an axiom for me. The here and now really is only here, now. It no longer became a vague goal, but a reality.

It's been a long road. For some of us childhood wasn't easy.  The here and now, then and there, was fraught with hardships. Appreciation wasn't easily understood when the days were spent using any means necessary to survive. I know for myself the battle seemed much easier once I learned how to check out emotionally.

But resisting life through isolation did me no favors. I became lonely and prone to a low-grade depression that left me feeling frustrated and unfulfilled. Once I began the journey that led to me to heal from past damages I began to look at slogans differently. They were no longer an undefined objective to be used for future events, but as current stepping stones to wellness. Finding a motto and practicing it in earnest brings me right back to the last place I thought I'd ever want to be—the present moment.

One of the unexpected benefits to healing is realizing that past events no longer carry the sway they did when I was young and vulnerable. And I no longer have to rely on the future to be the catalyst for a better me. Slowly but surely I'm removing the inner pain that has kept me arrested and stagnant. I'm emerging out of the shadows and into a light filled with present wonders.

How did I make the transition? 

No one is an island. I didn't do it alone. I needed a support system, people that helped me through those dark times and stood by me as I went through the angst I didn't allow myself to feel all those years ago when I could only process trauma in a fitful way.

What we are doing with Gardenspot is not your standard variety community center. Gardenspot hopes to be the place you will come with whatever you have in your possession, no matter how much or how little, and use it to become part of a fully functioning neighborhood. If you wish to be part of something more, but don't know where to begin, allow Gardenspot to be a stepping stone that guides you along your way.