Joy in Practice: Tending to Yourself Like a Garden
There’s a moment in late spring—just before summer takes hold—when everything feels possible.
The days are warm but not heavy. The garden is alive with promise. And if you listen closely, you might hear it: a whisper beneath the rush of your to-do list, a tug in your chest, a nudge from the soil itself.
Joy is asking to be tended.
What the Garden Teaches Us About Joy
As a gardener, I’ve come to see joy not as a sudden spark, but as a slow-growing thing. Like calendula or lemon balm, it often reseeds itself in forgotten corners, waiting for the right light to bloom.
Weeds don’t ask for permission. Wildflowers don’t worry about timing. The land teaches us, again and again, that joy can grow quietly, even in hard seasons. That healing doesn’t always look like rest—it sometimes looks like rooting down and turning your face toward the sun.
Joy as a Seasonal Practice
You don’t have to earn joy. It’s always yours. But you can cultivate it, lke a garden. This is what I call a joy practice—a way of tending to your inner world the way you would a beloved piece of land.
Establishing your own joy practices means intentionally choosing small, meaningful moments that reconnect you to yourself.
As spring wanes and summer starts, that might look like:
Planting something that brings you delight, whether that’s in the ground or in a pot on your patio
Spending five minutes each morning barefoot in the grass, cup of tea in hand
Listening to the birds sing their songs to each other through an open window
Whatever you decide, the goal is letting yourself feel joy with no need to justify it.
This is what we explore in my work with seasonal Joy Circles and the free 3-Day Joy Journey.
Welcome the Season: How to Create Your Own Joy Practices for Summer
As summer arrives, ask yourself:
What are you blooming toward?
Where have you forgotten to allow joy?
How can you honor what wants to grow in you now?
This season doesn’t need you to be better, faster, or more productive.
It simply asks you to be present.
Understanding where you are now, is the best place to begin.
Say yes to joy…want to go deeper?
Join a Joy Circle – a seasonal, small-group experience to remember what joy feels like—in community, with intention.
Start the Free 3-Day Joy Journey – a gentle email series of reflections to reconnect with your joy.