Stargazer: Garden Dreams Come True

For my "Enhancing Creativity" Class, we did an exercise created by Martha Beck called "Stargazer". The goal of the exercise is to reframe one's personal story and history to include seemingly negative events and see how they pave the way to the things we love most in the world.

Because I always wanted to have a wonderful garden, I had to be overwhelmed by other peoples problems while serving on the board of my condominium association.

The contractor who converted the building, an owner going into foreclosure (and illegally renting his unit while the bank was taking it over), an owner refusing to pay assessments and requiring legal action, pet policy violations, etc (and it was only a 9 unit building!) - convinced me that I had had enough of condo living.


Luckily our friends Brian and Jennifer were also house hunting at the time and worked with people who recommended Homewood-Flossmoor, an area we had never even heard of previously. We found a house we could afford with a double lot - more than we had hoped for and have spent the last 5 years getting rid of lawn and replacing it with landscaping; trees, shrubs, flowers and soon raised vegetable beds! If it weren't for all the headaches at the condo, I wouldn't have my beloved garden.


From Martha Beck's "Steering by Starlight" exercise.