Every spring I look down on my garden spot from a second story window and imagine what it will look like. I will put peas on the left, tomatoes on the right, beans, spinach, beets, swiss chard, wait, will there be enough room? Don’t forget the flowers where are the flowers going to go, there are never enough flowers. Will the roses be abundant this year, now they are just these thick sticks with thorns but what will they become? A garden is a place of imagination, an opportunity for creativity. My imaginary garden is perfect, rows of succulent leaf lettuce, borders of roses and daisies, like those gardens you visit that are kept by a paid professional staff. Wouldn’t that just be too perfect.!
Star gave me a book called Behaving as if the God in All Life Mattered by Michelle Small Wright. She says that :“When you are working directly in partnership with nature you cannot simply announce, “Let’s put in a garden!” and expect that you will get any information back from nature regarding the garden. You must supply the definition, direction and purpose of this garden.”
So my definition of a garden is a place to sit and gaze at the beauty of nature. My garden is a holy place, a thin place, a place of connection with the earth and with the Ground of All Being. It does not have to be perfect or even meet my grandiose image of what is should look like. With a little creativity from me, and some time to listen to nature, I can sit and breath and watch things grow without too much interference. Oh it still won’t be big enough for all that I imagine it can be, but it may be big enough for what I need it to be.