{"id":488,"date":"2009-06-04T15:20:32","date_gmt":"2009-06-04T15:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html"},"modified":"2009-06-04T15:20:32","modified_gmt":"2009-06-04T15:20:32","slug":"good-signs-in-the-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html","title":{"rendered":"Good Signs in the Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are you the kind of person who sees &#8220;signs&#8221; in random places?&nbsp; I&#8217;m usually not&#8211;maybe it&#8217;s my Taurus nature, but I find that looking for and interpreting signs can easily become a) an anxiety-provoking exercise in how inaccurate future-prediction can be and b) a full-time job.<\/p>\n<p>Except in my garden, where looking for signs is part of the process of keeping plants properly lit, warmed, watered, pruned, and, in the case of veggies, harvested. <\/p>\n<p>Those are all logistical survival &#8220;signs,&#8221; though, and my garden is rich with signs of the more spiritual variety.&nbsp; The most meaningful plant I have is a climbing rose, beautifully named &#8220;New Dawn.&#8221;&nbsp; It lives next to our front porch, and every year when it blooms, I remember the day when I planted it with my good friend Mike in the spring of 2003, when my husband Rob was deployed with the Army to the Middle East, and for whatever reason, our main morning activity one day was to plant that New Dawn.&nbsp; Every year, I give thanks that I can admire it with Rob safely and soundly by my side.<\/p>\n<p>So here&#8217;s the &#8220;sign&#8221; part.&nbsp; As you know, we&#8217;re <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/moving-tips-how-to-stage-your-home.html\">selling our condo and moving<\/a> to another house here in town.&nbsp; The condo went on the market today, in fact.&nbsp; And guess what is the first thing prospective buyers will see as they climb the stairs to take a look?<\/p>\n<p>New Dawn.&nbsp; Budding and about to bloom.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Are there two more perfect words than &#8220;New Dawn&#8221; to capture the best part of moving to a new home?&nbsp; If this isn&#8217;t a good sign, I don&#8217;t know what is. &nbsp; <\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/IMG_3446.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"IMG_3446.JPG\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/IMG_3446-thumb-333x222-5538.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt;float: left\" height=\"222\" width=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/IMG_3442.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"IMG_3442.JPG\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/IMG_3442-thumb-333x222-5540.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt;float: left\" height=\"222\" width=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/IMG_3447.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"IMG_3447.JPG\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/84\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/IMG_3447-thumb-333x222-5543.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt;float: left\" height=\"222\" width=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you the kind of person who sees &#8220;signs&#8221; in random places?&nbsp; I&#8217;m usually not&#8211;maybe it&#8217;s my Taurus nature, but I find that looking for and interpreting signs can easily become a) an anxiety-provoking exercise in how inaccurate future-prediction can be and b) a full-time job. Except in my garden, where looking for signs is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,32],"tags":[477,520,521],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","category-holistic-living","category-positive-things","tag-moving","tag-new-dawn","tag-rose"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Good Signs in the Garden - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good Signs in the Garden - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Are you the kind of person who sees &#8220;signs&#8221; in random places?&nbsp; I&#8217;m usually not&#8211;maybe it&#8217;s my Taurus nature, but I find that looking for and interpreting signs can easily become a) an anxiety-provoking exercise in how inaccurate future-prediction can be and b) a full-time job. Except in my garden, where looking for signs is&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-04T15:20:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/IMG_3446-thumb-333x222-5538.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hrossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Good Signs in the Garden - Fresh Living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good Signs in the Garden - Fresh Living","og_description":"Are you the kind of person who sees &#8220;signs&#8221; in random places?&nbsp; I&#8217;m usually not&#8211;maybe it&#8217;s my Taurus nature, but I find that looking for and interpreting signs can easily become a) an anxiety-provoking exercise in how inaccurate future-prediction can be and b) a full-time job. Except in my garden, where looking for signs is&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2009-06-04T15:20:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/IMG_3446-thumb-333x222-5538.jpg"}],"author":"hrossi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html","name":"Good Signs in the Garden - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/IMG_3446-thumb-333x222-5538.jpg","datePublished":"2009-06-04T15:20:32+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-04T15:20:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/IMG_3446-thumb-333x222-5538.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/IMG_3446-thumb-333x222-5538.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/good-signs-in-the-garden.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Good Signs in the Garden"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687","name":"hrossi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","caption":"hrossi"},"description":"Holly Lebowitz Rossi is Beliefnet's Health and Relationships Editor. A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}