The garden.
May 26, 2022May 22nd, 2021
The garden has been a labor of love - there can be no debate about that. It is the product of faith, hard work, and dedication. It is the result of firmly believing that a rocky hill could prove fertile soil with a bit of tlc, one which had been barren for many years. Tremendous time has been allocated to collecting pine needles, cleaning out debris, watering, pruning, dusting, removing spent flowers and dead leaves, loving, greeting, caressing trees, plants, bushes and their lush foliage, gasping at the sight of new growth or blooms, smiling at them, speaking to them, sowing new seeds of hope and simply observing nature take its course. With some degree of human cooperation, magic begins to unfolds. That’s wonderful, isn’t it? In more ways than one, I step outside to meet myself - to be at peace with myself and the world around me. In the garden, I find all the pieces. It’s a feeling of pure bliss and untainted joy. The garden is the ideal spot for me to replenish my energy. It’s an enchanting refuge threaded with urban wilderness and challenging factors that provides the perfect terrain for me to master my thoughts. I get to empty my mind when I make use of my hands - it works like a charm. Manual work to me is generally meditative but there’s an added bonus to working in the garden daily. I’ve noticed my meditation are most powerful when I’m physically grounded, barefoot, anchored into the earth. It has taught me to slow down and catch more of the in-betweens. It has taught me to move at my own pace and stick with steady output until the most difficult tasks get accomplished. I don’t appreciate being rushed when tending to Her needs. I don’t take shortcuts when it comes to Her either. If physically taxing, I retreat and return until mission is complete. If the mission fails, I try again a different way. My peace is disturbed whenever it enters my awareness that something in the garden requires my attention. It’s a deeply intimate and symbiotic relationship in which I take care of Her and She takes care of me. To simply sit in awe of Her, noticing her bountiful charm and contemplating her infinite beauty soothes my soul. Nature is the most potent medicine I know of; it is both chaos and restoration, destruction and regeneration, beginnings and endings. I am utterly convinced that having immersive access to Nature has had a tremendous impact on my health, greatly improving my overall quality of life. There is no greater reward in exchange for my nurturing and sweat than to see her thrive and multiply. New growth is worth the back pain, splinters, ant bites, cactus pricks, scraping and scaring earned myself along the way. Along with countless lessons, working on and in the garden has taught me a great deal about commitment and duty to care. I feel responsible for taking care of the garden as I know for certain that it will not get done otherwise. No one but me is really up for the task. Not only is there visual appeal in caring for the garden, it is a way of organically supporting other life. Over the years, I’ve watched it transformed from a dry land of no action to an oasis that welcomes visitors bearing all sorts of wings or crawling little legs. Birds, lizards, butterflies, spiders, bugs, worms, squirrels, you name it. The ultimate goal was to revitalize the soil and therefore maximize the backyard’s potential. To be able to witness such a phenomenal and steady growth further informs me of the extent of my creative powers and the ease in which things flow for me when in alignment with nature. Seeing it recover so well also reinforces the notion that hard works always pays off. Love - there has to be genuine love and care involved. That’s what I believe. It’s sort of an ideal relationship, in which sacrifices for the sake of love hurt good and yield great satisfaction. I delight myself with disturbing the top layer of soil and picking up debris with my bare hands although it requires me to squat and fold much too often for my fussy spine. I’m typically very sore afterwards but I suppose it’s like running or lifting for some, I’ve grown to love the burn. I see it has an opportunity to deploy all muscle groups - arms, legs, glutes. It’s an opportunity to get some sun. It’s an opportunity for introspection and heightened clarity. It’s an opportunity to breathe some fresh air and connect with the source. It’s just wonderful. A true and pure source of comfort and divine blessing. Every outing delivers its own experience, all of which are deeply healing. Answers come clearly. The relationship is clean and reciprocal. I give her attention and she purifies me in return. It’s a relationship within the context of which I genuinely want to do my best and provide in every which way I can. That’s quite inspiring to me. It’s been a lovely ride thus far, a profoundly restorative journey and an unparalleled source of fuel. I don’t think I’d be willing to go without a garden - it seems to be a requirement now.
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Reading this entry made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I cultivate a strong connection to my immediate environment - indoor or outdoor. The spaces I occupy ought to be calibrated to suit my needs and deliver on what it is I wish to experience. I get to set the tone. However, there’s always a level of compromise involved. One has to work with what’s provided, embrace its condition and make the most of what’s available to play with. My time in the garden has been nothing short of amazing. In Her arms I witnessed miracles unfolding daily. It’s quite formidable what we are blessed to see when we pay attention. So much is happening at all times. So much of the magic of life is dismissed, taken for granted. For long the garden was my sweet escape and to this day remains a metaphor for existence. Whilst I’ve inherited countless scratches, cuts, and bruises from my days spent outside tackling manual work, I’ve received even more guidance from my interactions with the elements. It is a source of infinite wisdom where stillness is easily found and peace reigns supreme.
#CultivateYourGarden #WaterYouWaterMe #DomesticatedFeral #WildCat #WorkingHands #GardenWork #GardenNaked #InMyElement #GoOutside #VitaminD #CoCreation #MotherNature #SunGod #TerraFirma #ColdEarth #MoreLife #Grounding #Symbiosis #Regeneration #Growth #Healing #Oneness #Alchemy #Partnership #Peace #Love