Three Beautiful Things:
Hummers are hitting it hard lately.
memorial garden
DIY Memorial Garden
Even if you don’t have a million dollars to re-landscape your outdoor living space, you can still create a memorial garden or outdoor sanctuary in a small space on a shoestring.
Depending on how elaborate you want to get, a bench and a few low maintenance plants will do. Expand on the idea with an arbor, pergola or trellis. Outdoor lighting? You can do it in phases, or as your finances allow. Next season, add a fountain or water feature.
Feel like you need to get your hands dirty and work the earth? What about this intriguing garden design? It can be done on a small scale and filled with easy care plants.
Want to dedicate a tree or sacred spot in the garden? Customize a garden memorial stone or marker. Personalized stones will take 2-4 weeks to create, but worth the wait and you can use the time to plan your space and buy the plants needed.
It’s never too late to start creating your healing garden, in fact this is a great time to find outdoor furniture, plants and accessories on clearance.
Today’s tip: Create a sanctuary for yourself.
Strawberry Fields Memorial Garden
Today we are touring the Strawberry Fields Memorial Garden in New York’s Central Park. When Yoko Ono and John Lennon lived in the Dakota Apartments, this was one of their favorite places in Central Park.
Today, this 2.5 acre area of the park is dedicated to the memory of John Lennon and named after his famous song “Strawberry Fields Forever”. Yoko Ono donated $1 million toward the re-landscaping and maintenance of Strawberry Fields after it was dedicated to Lennon’s memory in 1981. The memorial garden is home to over 120 different species of plants and trees with a tear drop shaped path that runs through the garden.
The “Imagine” mosaic is a gift from Italy and is a replica of a famous mosaic in Pompeii. The only change from the original is the inclusion of “Imagine” in the center of the mosaic and has become a popular place for visitors to place flowers, pictures and tokens in memory of John Lennon.
On a personal note, Sunday night is now not only Must See TV (HBO), but also our new guilty pleasure: PostSecret .
Today’s tip for better living: Imagine.
Mosaic of Our Lives
After the death of my mother-in-law I started experimenting with making garden stones. They are fun and easy and a great garden expression or gift.
Early experiments yielded thin stones that cracked later. But after we got the hang of it, we produced some masterpieces! I was able to collect a lot of Peggy’s costume jewelry and set pieces into the concrete for some stunning stepping stones for family members.
Small bags of Qwik-Crete cement, a plastic lined pizza box or deli trays to use for forms, and a stash of shells, glass beads or other embellishments and you’ve got a garden keepsake! Recipe and simple instructions here.
Clearing the Emotional Clutter Pt. 2
HOW TO FREE YOURSELF OF MEMORY CLUTTER
* Realize that if you let go of an item, you do not let go of that person. People do not live on through material items.
* Hold on to items that only bring back positive memories, not painful ones.
* If there are items that encourage you to keep up a ritual based on grief, consider letting it go and focus on the positive instead.
* Make sure your space has a great representation of the past but also leaves room for you to celebrate the present and plan for the future.
* Keep the items that truly represent your loved one. To help, use this three-step process:
Step 1: Place all items in another area.
Step 2: If you’re looking to renovate a room, decide how you want to feel in that space.
Step 3: Sort everything into three categories: charity donations, keepsakes and items for a memory chest.
After almost six years, one family began the process of letting go of their young son. They begin with suitcases of his clothes and find a T-shirt that brings back painful memories of the end of his life. “Three years of our life was pain, and that’s like a memory of him. That’s still him,” his mother says.
“You have to separate the pain from the memory of your son,” organizational expert Peter Walsh says. Slowly, she lets go. “The thing is now this will be used by kids who need clothes. It will be put to great use by others who are less well off than you,” Peter says.
When deciding to keep certain things, that were part of the family routine, Peter wants to make sure this ritual is not unhealthy for the family. “The big focus in this is that stuff has power over you,” Peter says. “My concern [is] that often in touching things or looking at things they [are] connecting to the grief of the experience.”
Five hours later, the family finishes with four boxes of joyful memories.
When they described what they wanted in a home office, the family told Nate they wanted it to be functional but still honor their son’s memory.
Nate turned Jake’s old bedroom into a cheerful, organized office for the entire family. The new space is inviting. Calming blue walls, one of which is covered in cork with family photographs and mementos from the past, but room for the future picture perfect moments.
Nate and Peter pulled out all the stops for a memory chest using a beautiful armoire from “Remember when we gathered everything that you wanted to keep into the memory chest pile?” Peter says. “It’s important to understand that those things that you wanted to keep can be stored anywhere as long as they’re stored with honor and respect. And in the case of the room, the armoire’s the perfect place for that.”
On the other side of the room is a matching armoire to organize office supplies. “There are two cabinets, one’s past, one’s present and future,” Nate says.
The family loves the tribute and says they are glad the room is no longer a shrine. “It’s more of a healthy room….it’s not stuck in 2001. Now it’s 2007 and forward.”