THE GARDEN WE CALL US
A Couples Journal for Growing Deeper Together
This garden belongs to:
Partner One:
Partner Two:
We began planting on:
Every garden needs tending. So does every love.
A Note to You Both
A garden is never finished. It is always in process — always being tended, always becoming. That is the nature of growing things. That is also the nature of love.
This journal is an invitation to slow down together. To look at the garden of your relationship with honest, loving eyes. To notice what is thriving. To tend what needs care. To plant seeds for the seasons ahead.
Some prompts you will answer separately, each in your own voice and color. Others you will answer together, in the shared space between you. There are no right answers here — only honest ones.
Come to these pages gently. Come curiously. And come with the knowledge that the fact that you are here, tending this garden together, is already an act of love.
— Nadine A. Thompson, LICSW
How to Use This Journal
♥ Partner One responds in their own space
Each prompt has two writing areas — one for each of you. Answer honestly and in your own words, without reading your partner’s response first.
♥ Partner Two responds in their own space
Your perspective is as valid and important as your partner’s. This is not about agreement — it is about being known.
♥ Then share — when you are ready
After you have both written, read each other’s responses aloud if you wish. Listen without interrupting. Receive what your partner offers with an open heart.
♥ The shared prompts belong to you both
Some questions invite a single answer you create together. Sit with these side by side and let the response be a conversation made visible.
SESSION 1 · Seasons of the Relationship
The Season We Are In
Every relationship moves through seasons. Which one are you in right now?
Prompt 1 What season best describes where your relationship is right now?
• Spring — new beginnings, tender growth, fragile hope?
• Summer — full and warm, perhaps stretched in every direction?
• Autumn — harvesting what you’ve built, letting some things fall away?
• Winter — quiet, still, waiting for something to stir again?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 2 What season did your relationship just come through? What did that season ask of you both?
• What did you lose in that season? What did you gain?
• What did you learn about each other — or about yourselves?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 3 What season are you hoping for — together?
• What would that season feel like in your home, in your daily life?
• What would need to be tended or released for that season to arrive?
Partner One
Partner Two
♥ Together: What is the most beautiful thing that has grown between you, in any season?
• Take your time with this one. Let it be specific. Let it be true.
SESSION 2 · Communication & Listening
The Language of Our Garden
To tend a garden, you must learn to listen to it. So it is with each other.
Prompt 1 When do you feel most truly heard by your partner?
• What does it look like, sound like, feel like when they are fully present with you?
• Can you remember a specific moment? Describe it.
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 2 What is something you have been wanting to say but haven’t found the words for yet?
• You don’t have to share this with your partner right now — just let yourself write it.
• What would it mean for your relationship if it could be spoken and received?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 3 What is one way you could become a better listener for your partner this season?
• Not what they should do differently — what you could offer.
• What gets in the way of your listening? What helps?
Partner One
Partner Two
♥ Together: What is one conversation you have been putting off that wants to happen between you?
• You don’t have to have it now. Just name it. Sometimes naming is the first tending.
SESSION 3 · Gratitude & Appreciation
What I Love About This Garden
Gratitude is water. It makes everything grow.
Prompt 1 What do you most appreciate about your partner right now — in this season?
• Not the grand gestures — the small, daily ones too.
• What do they do that you may never have told them you notice?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 2 What do you appreciate about yourself in this relationship?
• What do you bring to this garden that is uniquely yours?
• This is not boasting — it is honest tending.
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 3 What about your relationship itself are you most grateful for?
• Not just your partner — the thing between you. The shared life.
• What exists because of both of you together that neither of you could have grown alone?
Partner One
Partner Two
♥ Together: Write each other a sentence of gratitude — right here, right now.
• It can be small. It can be simple. Let it be true.
• Partner One writes to Partner Two. Partner Two writes to Partner One.
SESSION 4 · Joy & Play Together
The Flowers in Our Garden
Joy is not a luxury. In a relationship, it is oxygen.
Prompt 1 When do you and your partner laugh together most freely?
• When was the last time? What were you doing?
• What does laughter feel like in your body when it comes from being with them?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 2 What did you love to do together in an earlier season of your relationship that you miss?
• What got in the way of it? Is it still possible?
• Is there a new version of that joy waiting to be discovered?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 3 What is one playful, joyful thing you would love to do with your partner this year?
• Let yourself be specific and a little dreamy here.
• What would that experience plant in your relationship?
Partner One
Partner Two
♥ Together: Plan one small joy. Something you can do in the next 30 days.
• It doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate. It just has to be intentional.
• Write it here as a promise to each other.
SESSION 5 · Healing & Forgiveness
Tending the Wounded Places
Even the most beautiful gardens have places that need healing. That is not failure. That is growth.
These are tender prompts. Move through them gently, at whatever pace feels right. You do not need to share everything you write. Some of this is simply for you.
Prompt 1 Is there something in your relationship that is still asking to be healed?
• You don’t need to solve it here — just name it for yourself.
• What would healing look like, if it were possible?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 2 Is there something you are holding onto — a hurt, a disappointment, a grief — that is taking up space in your garden?
• What would it feel like to set it down?
• What are you afraid might happen if you did?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 3 Is there something you want to ask forgiveness for? Something you want to offer forgiveness for?
• Forgiveness does not mean what happened was acceptable. It means you are choosing the garden over the wound.
• You don’t have to do this today. But what would the first step look like?
Partner One
Partner Two
♥ Together: What does a healed, whole version of your relationship look like?
• Describe it in detail. What is different? What is the same?
• What does it feel like to stand in that garden together?
SESSION 6 · Generosity & Shared Dreams
What We Are Growing Together
A generous garden gives freely — to the gardeners, to each other, and to the world.
Prompt 1 What is one generous thing you want to offer your partner this year?
• Not a gift from a store — a gift of yourself.
• Your time, your patience, your attention, your tenderness. What does your partner most need from you?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 2 What is one shared dream you have for your life together?
• Something you both want but perhaps haven’t said plainly to each other.
• What would it take to begin moving toward it?
Partner One
Partner Two
Prompt 3 How does your relationship give back — to your family, your community, the world?
• What does love look like when it flows outward from the two of you?
• What could it look like, if you let it grow?
Partner One
Partner Two
♥ Together: Write one intention for your garden in the season ahead.
• Not a resolution. Not a demand. An intention — a seed you are choosing to plant together.
• Sign it, both of you, when you are ready.
A CLOSING REFLECTION
Our Garden
A love that tends itself is a love that lasts.
♥ Describe your garden — your relationship — right now, as you see it together.
• What is in full bloom?
• What is still finding its way to the light?
• What needs water? What has deep roots?
♥ What do you want people to see when they look at the garden of your love?
• Your children. Your friends. The world.
• What kind of beauty are you cultivating together?
♥ If your love were a garden, what would grow there that grows nowhere else on earth?
• Let this one be a little poetic. Let yourselves be moved.
• Write whatever comes.
Now — draw it together.
Your garden. The one you are building together. It doesn’t have to be finished — it never is. Just draw what you see, and what you hope for.
Our Garden — Draw It Together:
|
|
You showed up for each other.
Every page. Every honest word. Every tender answer.
That is tending. That is love.
Return to this journal. Add new pages. Let it grow with you. And know that every season you tend this garden together — even the hard ones — is a season that deepens the roots of your love.
With care and hope for your garden,
Nadine A. Thompson, LICSW