The Joy of the Garden

We've had an early spring, some people have been working in their gardens for a month. But, like many others around here, I didn't get started in my garden until this weekend. As usual, when I am working in my garden on a warm spring day time passes quickly and I become absorbed in my tasks of digging and weeding and transplanting. Sometimes I even think about my garden philosophically!

Gardening can be peaceful and meditative. In Finding The Still Point Tom Harpur writes that in Okinawa gardening is considered a religious experience, as even plants are thought to be imbued with spirit. Celtic spirituality sees God in creation, in the connectedness of all things. The Buddist monk Thich Nhat Hanh who has written so much of an ecumenical nature, drawing the parallels between Christianity and Buddhism, urges us to be mindful in all our activities of this connectedness. Thus in the garden we can be mindful that each flower, each shrub, each tree, and yes, each "weed" contains the sun, contains the clouds, contains the ocean and contains the minerals and other nutrients from the soil.

I think perhaps that that is the real joy of the garden: working the earth, feeling the warmth of the sun and knowing that with some water and tender loving care our plants will grow and flowers will bloom.