I have always considered writing to be a fingerprint of my fullest self represented on paper- or your local laptop screen. I began writing a personal blog six months ago as an expressive outlet I could plug myself into, focus my energy, and put power into positivity. This blog became a tangle of garden metaphors and flower puns I used to describe my growth in fortune cookie level inspiration.

Top Ten Life Lessons Expressed in Garden Analogies

1. Water vs. Weeds

You flourish when you learn the difference between what is replenishing your life and what is prohibiting you from moving forward.

2. Search for Sunlight

Have a goal. Set a standard for success that inspires your growth and keeps your gaze on your goal.

3. Start Mining

Anyone can listen to 'the dirt' on one another, but it is far more important to be the one to find the gold- in our friendships, our relationships, our circumstances, and our differences.

4. Bare the Storm not the Drought

Without rain, there are no flowers. Storms are a chance to grow not an opportunity to grab an umbrella.

5. Don't Grab the Ruler

Growth of all measures is significant. We don't need to compare ourselves to those beside us when we are focused on what's above.

6. Break Down & Break Open

For a seed to accomplish its purpose, it cannot stay the same. In order to grow, we have to break out of our shell, focus on what's on the inside, and change in preparedness for what's coming. This process, when not understood, is often disguised as destruction, but it is just the beginning.

7. Get a Trim

Cut away the parts of your life that are limiting. Prune away what prevents progress.

8. Live Life in the Greenhouse

Put yourself in an environment to be nourished, to be poured into, to be protected, to be cared for. We gain the most when we are surrounded by support in a place promoting powerful growth.

9. Plant Flowers Don't Buy the Bouquet

Plant a garden for the future because it is far more important to believe in tomorrow than to be short-satisfied today.

10. Be the Day Lilly Baby

Treat each day as a new opportunity to bloom. Discard the struggles of the day at the end of each challenge and begin again.