Shoshana's Garden

About two years (this is August 2022) ago my life took some twists and turns that I was not expecting. I literally “started over.” One suitcase in hand, I returned to the area where I grew up. Not really what I wanted to do, but felt I needed too.

 

I used to write weekly, and often daily. That soon became a struggle. I gave it up… Every now and then I would have an “ah-ha moment” and write something. Overall, it just was hard.

 

Recently I have had the desire to write again, but I don’t want to feel as if I have to write about one particular subject or with a certain “religious” tone. I want the freedom to write as my heart ponders things. The struggles, the desires, the good and the bad. I also don’t want to just broadcast my name. I am who HE created me to be and I have my name, but I don’t want my name to define me.

 

Why did I choose this domain and name?

 

My Hebrew name could be either Verde or Shoshana. I have gone back and forth over the years and never really knew which one I preferred. One night, as I was trying to relax during the middle of a crazy wind and rain storm the name “Shoshana’s Garden” came to me.

 

Shoshana can mean, “rose,” or as some have begun to translate it, “lily.” Lily and Rose are very different, but both have significant meanings alone. It is used in the Book Song of Solomon.

 

Song of Solomon 2:1

 

I am but a rose from the Sharon,

just a lily in the valleys.

 

A life verse of mine is Isaiah 58:11

 

Adonai will always guide you;

he will satisfy your needs in the desert,

he will renew the strength in your limbs;

so that you will be like a watered garden,

like a spring whose water never fails.

 

A well-watered garden… This has always been my desire. To bloom where I am planted and be a source of life to those around me. Even in the hard times, my needs have been supplied. This verse is a life line for me when I get discouraged.

 

When the name came to me I realized that it tied things together for me.

 

A garden has many facets to it.

 

You can cry in a garden. Laugh. Dance. Sleep. One must water it. One must weed it. Some are beautiful, and some are filled with things to eat. When I am compelled to write, the idea of a garden is that it encompasses many many things.

 

My hope and prayer is that this is a safe place for anyone to share what is on their heart. Struggles, joys, tears, laughter… I LOVE my Creator with my whole heart, but it doesn’t look like everyone wants it too. I’m learning how to love myself, and then others. In the upside down journey He took me on, I’m relearning WHO He is and what He wants from me.

 

May this blog be a place that shakes all of us to a place that only He can take us. And in that place may we find His peace.