{"id":6350,"date":"2019-09-23T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T09:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=6350"},"modified":"2019-09-18T13:51:08","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T17:51:08","slug":"secret-garden-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Garden of the Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Much as we might find ourselves on a hillside watching helplessly as an approaching storm overtakes where we stand, there are times when we know a sorrow is coming but are unable to get out from beneath its pain.<\/p>\n<p>Sorrow that not only didn\u2019t we tell someone of our love for him or her, but sorrow also that we couldn\u2019t speak the truth of our heart\u2014or that we just wouldn\u2019t\u2014for fear of being misunderstood.<\/p>\n<p>Sorrow that we didn\u2019t take a much firmer interior stand against what we could see defiled our soul, or sorrow that when we did attempt to be strong, all we found was the depths of our own inadequacy.<\/p>\n<p>Sorrow over wasting so many precious hours pleasuring ourselves with meaningless pursuits, and sorrow for the fact that we knew better but feared emptiness more than regret.<\/p>\n<p>In these observations there is no joy\u2014only a faint sensing, a dim realization, that for these revelations something within us must die; further, that the deeper run its roots, the more meaningful will be its passing\u2009\u2026<\/p>\n<p>If we will stand there in these seemingly dark moments, one thing becomes increasingly evident: the growth of our soul rarely unfolds in a light that we recognize as such. Many times, darkness is the medium, sorrow the seed, and the subsequent humility conceived in these trials is the divine garden in which our soul flowers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Lesson:<\/strong><em>\u00a0It is through our awareness of imperfection\u2014of seeing our own shadow appear, spread, and then falter in a supernal light\u2014that the Divine first gives us a glimpse of its eternal perfection and then invites us to enter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much as we might find ourselves on a hillside watching helplessly as an approaching storm overtakes where we stand, there are times when we know a sorrow is coming but are unable to get out from beneath its pain. Sorrow that not only didn\u2019t we tell someone of our love for him or her, but&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[672,1],"tags":[701,3293,3294,1272,1386,3295,152,755,3292],"class_list":["post-6350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-changetransformation","category-enlightenment-self-realization","tag-dark-moments","tag-fearing-emptiness","tag-growth-of-the-soul","tag-imperfections","tag-inadequacy","tag-inviting-the-divine","tag-regret","tag-sorrow","tag-wasting-precious-time"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Secret Garden of the Soul - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/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\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Secret Garden of the Soul - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Much as we might find ourselves on a hillside watching helplessly as an approaching storm overtakes where we stand, there are times when we know a sorrow is coming but are unable to get out from beneath its pain. Sorrow that not only didn\u2019t we tell someone of our love for him or her, but&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-23T09:00:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-18T17:51:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@guy_finley\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Secret Garden of the Soul - Letting Go with Guy Finley","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\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Secret Garden of the Soul - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"Much as we might find ourselves on a hillside watching helplessly as an approaching storm overtakes where we stand, there are times when we know a sorrow is coming but are unable to get out from beneath its pain. Sorrow that not only didn\u2019t we tell someone of our love for him or her, but&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html","og_site_name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","article_published_time":"2019-09-23T09:00:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-18T17:51:08+00:00","author":"Guy Finley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@guy_finley","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html","name":"The Secret Garden of the Soul - Letting Go with Guy Finley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-09-23T09:00:03+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-18T17:51:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/09\/secret-garden-soul.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Secret Garden of the Soul"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/","name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","description":"Holistic, Mental Health and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?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\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16","name":"Guy Finley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","caption":"Guy Finley"},"description":"Bestselling \"Letting Go\" author Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6350"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6355,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6350\/revisions\/6355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}