We tend to think of life as something we survive, optimize, or escape from… but a better metaphor is a garden. Not the wild chaos of nature untouched, and not the sterile geometry of a spreadsheet, but something living, cultivated, and deeply personal. Something we shape, and that shapes us.

Our life is a garden. We don’t control everything. We don’t control the weather, we don’t control the seasons, but we are absolutely responsible for how it’s designed, maintained, and tended. A good garden doesn’t grow by accident. It takes intention We have to consider the soil composition, light, water, protection, pruning… even the patience we employ to create our garden.

We choose the plants… our work, our relationships, our habits, our rituals. We decide what to fertilize and what to pull out by the roots. We learn when to let things grow wild and when to guide them with a trellis. We defend against pests – bad habits, toxic influences, self-sabotage, and we build fences to keep the hungry animals of distraction and burnout from ravaging what we’ve worked so hard to plant.

But how do we know if our garden is actually thriving?

That’s where the Tuesday Morning Test comes in. I can’t remember which psychologist coined it, but it stuck with me. The idea is simple: forget the big goals, the bucket lists, the highlight reels. Ask this instead:

On a normal Tuesday morning, as we’re about to leave our bed, do we enjoy being in our own life?

Not leaving our bed during a vacation, or not after some breakthrough or great accomplishment, and not in some ideal future. Just… a regular Tuesday. No special occasion, or spotlight.

Would we want to walk through the garden we’ve built? Would we breathe deeper? Feel proud? At peace? Or would we look around and feel boxed in by choices we didn’t make, overgrowth we ignored, or soil we never nourished?

Because if our Tuesday mornings suck, our life probably does too.

But if those Tuesday mornings feel grounded, fulfilling, even quietly beautiful, our garden is alive and well.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. Gardens never are. They’re messy, seasonal, and full of surprises. But the goal is simple:

Let’s build a life we want to wake up inside. Not someday. Tuesday.

The Tribe of the Fire? It’s about creating that garden. 

Interested? Check out our Facebook Group; we’re cureently planning what this whole thing looks like.

~Jason