The Garden
The other morning, I read a meaningful and true reflection on The Divine Garden. It journeyed from the Garden of Eden’s abundance and growth to the Garden of Gethsemane’s surrender, and finally to the Eternal Garden of peace. The meditation included three components of a garden: Order, Beauty, and Life within a biblical and spiritual sense. It was a thoughtful commentary that made me wonder about the similarities between life and a garden. Like a garden, our lives have order, whether we recognize it or not, beauty if we look, and purpose
Stepping outside into my small perennial space, I could feel the presence of Order, Beauty, and Life among the pearly whites, bright orange poppies, ornamental grasses, and a weed here and there. It’s hard to determine which aspect I like most about the garden.
The Order is the arrangement, sequence, and pattern of the garden. I like predictability, a method to the madness. Maybe that’s why I enjoy planning and plotting which flowers to plant and their placement within the outlined boundaries. I’ve even used colored pencils on graph paper! By arranging the plants by color, size, and blooming time, I can visualize what the plot will look like in three years, and it is perfect!
Do you know how many times I have played out this step-by-step exercise and been disappointed yet, often completely surprised? The outcome is seldom the design I drew up, with yellow blooms turning pink, tall blossoms failing to reach the prescribed height, and my least favorite flower taking over in unexpected spots. Still, the garden is beautiful.
Just as in our stories, with the best-laid plans and God laughing, life doesn’t always follow our maps. Our choices can have different results than the original vision - the option to quit college, the commitment to marry, or determining a career path often develop into unforeseen consequences. And yet, we can find beauty in the unintended, if we look.
The Beauty is shape, color, or form that is pleasing to our senses. Do the flowers know beauty better than I, and that’s why they grow however and wherever? Their colors and silhouettes are lovely to the eye, and their fragrances awaken the sense of smell amidst the busy city. It’s such a delight to enter the garden quietly in early morning light, notice the dewdrops clinging to the leaves, and fall into the alluring attraction of nature. Butterflies know and understand this feeling with the added seduction of nectar. I follow their lead, wishing my steps were as delicate as their wings.
If the sun shines enough and the water flows in perfect amounts, the plants are most often willing to show off their individual glamour. Even on my hands and knees pulling weeds, the blossoms please the aesthetic senses. Some of the invasive plants are pretty, too. Do I get to decide which is a weed and which is a chosen plant? It’s a good reminder that we don’t need to manage all the details. Sometimes the surprises in life are the best.
Life includes the capacity for growth, reproduction, function, and change. Growing plants inspire great hope for the coming season and the next. Watching the flora transform into all it can be, thick, blooming, and spreading, is a testament to life itself. The alteration becomes formidable by mid-July as purple cones and full-blooming shasta daisies begin their show. As fall descends, the blackeyed susans and periwinkle gayfeathers thrive. The continual change, a seed to fresh growth flourishing, reaching the sun, and slowly wilting back into the earth as fertilizer marks the seasons.
The shift reminds me of the transformation that our lives hold. With the right amount of sunshine, nourishment, love, and care, people grow and become hopeful individuals. Dreams and ambitions become realities with the gardener's proper tending. Our bodies change with the epochs, showing different colors through time, each season invoking a sense of awe.
Bees and butterflies increase the importance of the colorful perennials. Attracting those pollinators helps transfer the pollen, making the land prosperous and full of life. From the air quality to water control, those fragrant posies work hard for us and look marvelous doing it. Again, this brings to mind our human purpose: loving and serving each other with kindness, thoughtfully caring for the environment, and providing beauty and order to our world. This is our vocation. How we pursue this calling morphs with the circumstances in our lives, but it remains in the depths of our souls to nurture goodness. We don’t have to look marvelous doing it; just accomplish something better.
The garden is a spiritual place from which Order, Beauty, and Life flow to fill we human gardeners with joy! It’s a place to work, read, and explore catalogues for next year’s plantings. Would zinnias be good, or lavender, sweet cherry tomatoes, or basil?
Oh, so many things to think about! What’s your favorite plant?
Bit by bit, that’s all she wrote…