This is lovely and true. I so appreciate your references to finding beauty as a pattern of repair, healing and hope. Time in a garden is always a good idea for my soul. I have long loved this quote from a young mom, who said it often, after cancer handed her two wars and great suffering and a decimation of beautiful lives,
Wade, thanks for letting us heal a little by just seeing the photos of your garden. I know many therapists who specialize in abuse recovery who garden to help them handle the load. For me and Jason, our walks in our Bay Area neighborhood during the Spring when we were both fired from church led us to literally stop and smell the roses blooming in our neighbors’ gardens and admire the redwoods who grow tall and strong, withstanding the California fires over many years.
Orwell was on to something, and his work remains enlightening in today’s totalitarian spaces of all types.
The garden is my refuge even when it's too dark to continue. I can breathe, think, contemplate and pray. I ❤ creation. The complexities, connectedness and dependence of every insect, plant and bird is a joy to witness.
Thank you for sharing this. I'm not any good at gardening, but I love nature. At the beginning of spring (it's spring here on our side of the world) I was amazed to find a beautiful wisteria vine that had appeared miraculously in our garden and had replaced a bland vine that wound around our house post on the front porch. I didn't plant it. The wisteria wasn't there before. We've lived here for 10 years.
I don't know this happened. But it was a miraculous garden miracle. One of my favourite plants that represents resiliance had popped up in my garden after the longest and darkest winter of my life. I shared this with my shattered community and it encouraged them also.
Thanks for these reminders. I wonder if there is also something deeply theological here. Eg, John is the only gospel writer who names the place of Jesus’ burial and resurrection as a garden, and he tells us that Mary Magdalen mistook Jesus for the gardener (which he truly is as the Vine and New Adam). John is also the gospel that deals most directly with spiritual abuse and toxic religious control. Makes me wonder how much more meaning and comfort those symbols would have if I too did some gardening. Enjoying nature has definitely been a recurring balm in spiritual trauma healing.
This is lovely and true. I so appreciate your references to finding beauty as a pattern of repair, healing and hope. Time in a garden is always a good idea for my soul. I have long loved this quote from a young mom, who said it often, after cancer handed her two wars and great suffering and a decimation of beautiful lives,
“Find a bit of beauty in the world today.
Share it. If you can’t find it, create it.
Some days this may be hard to do.
Persevere.”
Lisa Bonchek Adams
Wade, thanks for letting us heal a little by just seeing the photos of your garden. I know many therapists who specialize in abuse recovery who garden to help them handle the load. For me and Jason, our walks in our Bay Area neighborhood during the Spring when we were both fired from church led us to literally stop and smell the roses blooming in our neighbors’ gardens and admire the redwoods who grow tall and strong, withstanding the California fires over many years.
Orwell was on to something, and his work remains enlightening in today’s totalitarian spaces of all types.
This is both beautiful and true. Much like you.
Thank you, Wade, for being in the world in a way that mirrors both.
I was up til 3 a.m. last night wrestling through similar thoughts. This was balm for my soul today. Thank you.
Totally agree!
In this conversation, Kate and Margaret discuss:
What we miss when we imagine we have to drive somewhere else to experience nature, instead of noticing it around us
What birds teach us about what means to be a good mother
How to learn to love even the mosquitoes and wasps
Where Margaret experiences moments of holiness
How we might all start to be besotted by beauty
https://katebowler.com/podcasts/margaret_renkl/?fbclid=IwAR1l8e6ECnoWrEkYvEXTeo0H6JTAa0dFam2vdOm0aG5EgCCCbzRhjUQmMAE_aem_AWHbs3cZaqDleB1B1DK-9p_sJhlmRzO4YrXoFzAQgdQywFntkKLpezTL8TJ-HKlst9c
The garden is my refuge even when it's too dark to continue. I can breathe, think, contemplate and pray. I ❤ creation. The complexities, connectedness and dependence of every insect, plant and bird is a joy to witness.
Thank you for sharing this. I'm not any good at gardening, but I love nature. At the beginning of spring (it's spring here on our side of the world) I was amazed to find a beautiful wisteria vine that had appeared miraculously in our garden and had replaced a bland vine that wound around our house post on the front porch. I didn't plant it. The wisteria wasn't there before. We've lived here for 10 years.
I don't know this happened. But it was a miraculous garden miracle. One of my favourite plants that represents resiliance had popped up in my garden after the longest and darkest winter of my life. I shared this with my shattered community and it encouraged them also.
God is in the Garden 🏡
Thanks for these reminders. I wonder if there is also something deeply theological here. Eg, John is the only gospel writer who names the place of Jesus’ burial and resurrection as a garden, and he tells us that Mary Magdalen mistook Jesus for the gardener (which he truly is as the Vine and New Adam). John is also the gospel that deals most directly with spiritual abuse and toxic religious control. Makes me wonder how much more meaning and comfort those symbols would have if I too did some gardening. Enjoying nature has definitely been a recurring balm in spiritual trauma healing.