I’ve never been much of a dreamer. I’ve never been much of a gardener. My family and others close to me will attest to that. They would say that I’ve been too grounded in reality and practicality to dream and to garden.

Chalk it up to being too busy raising a family. Chalk it up to working full time outside the home with the start of gardening season colliding with the busiest time of the year at work. Chalk it up to the Herculean task that is required to turn Manitoba gumbo into pliable soil to make a garden grow.

This year is going to be different. My family is raised. My work is on hold. My garden gumbo is going to be “gone-zo”.

A cancer diagnosis has robbed me of some of my dreams and hopes. Instead, it is teaching me to let go of old dreams and hopes and replace them with new chances to dream and to hope. These new dreams and hopes are more realistic. They reside closer to home instead of far-away lands. These new dreams and hopes are gifts that are waiting for me to respond.

In living with cancer, one of my new dreams is to blend horticulture with hope to create a “Healing Garden of Hope” in our back yard. I was inspired to create a private healing (and scaled down) garden after viewing this breast cancer healing garden video from the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBTD_KT5fMM

Healing gardens have their origins in ancient times when monasteries used them as environments to focus on one’s mind, body, and spirit rather than on the symptoms of a disease. Today, healing gardens are experiencing a revival as hospitals and treatment centres erect them as alternative therapies for managing chronic diseases and other ailments.

There is something soulful, tranquil, and peaceful about resting in the surroundings of a healing garden that I am drawn to partake in this summer. The garden is meant to provide sensory experiences in a calming and restorative landscape.

The healing garden is where I want to spend time this year to recover and rest from my cancer surgery. The healing garden will replace our annual cabin rental holiday this year, as medical appointments will be keeping me in town. The healing garden is where I plan to spend hours in conversation with people who matter to me, as their visits become more and more meaningful now as I live with cancer.

In thinking about the healing garden and it’s “how to’s,” my computer dictionary aptly describes my handiwork with horticulture as a noun: “your gardener apparently knows very little about horticulture.” Truer words were never spoken about my gardening abilities. However, I am open to learning and am undaunted by this gardening challenge.

I know that amongst the “Warrior Women of the Amazon Tribe” and the “Action Heroes” who are traveling with me on this cancer journey, that there are teachers and practitioners of horticulture amongst them who will help me to make this dream become a reality with their help. A local greenhouse and a landscaping company that will design and build our healing garden will aid them.

The healing garden will provide me with the soothing environment I need to continue to accept my illness and help prevent me from being resentful about my cancer diagnosis. My hope is that the garden will help to allay my fears in this cancer journey.

Daily, I choose to reframe my thinking about my cancer diagnosis by turning a negative outlook into something positive. Daily, I choose to be positive, as being negative is counter-productive. It takes too much of my energy, which I’d rather channel into something positive each day.

I look forward to positive experiences this summer in the healing garden as I spend soulful time with loved ones. We will have many meaningful conversations surrounded by fragrances, fluttering butterflies and songbirds. My healing garden will help me to continue to fight cancer with Strength, Courage, and Determination.