the garden

Follow me down the Garden Path where the fairies live and life is magical...

As a new mum to our darling baby girl Velvet and passionate partner to my magnificent man the d-man (Damon Gameau), I understand that life requires some gentle care or 'gardening' as i like to call it.  We need to pull out the weeds and remind ourselves to stop and smell the Jasmine on summer nights.  Occasionally we need to plant seeds that later need to be harvested when the time is right. 

Where we live, we are surrounded by nature.  Ferny lush greens and massive eucalypts. There are waterfall walks nearby and we get fresh spring water to drink from a family business down the road.  

Our own garden is like fairy land.  It is green all year round and full of flowers in every season. Right now the daisies are in bloom and the lilacs are starting to throw their scent around as well.  The rosehips are budding on the bush but they are still green and yellow.  In the coming months they will turn orange then red then deep magenta at which point I will collect them to make jam or just nibble at them straight off the bush.

We are lucky up here.  Being constantly surrounded by nature reminds us that we too are natural creatures.  We, like the earth, have seasons.  If we are aware we can learn to reflect on these cycles in our own lives and become harmonious beings in touch with our surroundings but not ruled by them.

To me this makes maintaining our inner "garden" easier.  We can notice the seasonal shifts within ourselves and know that they will pass as does everything in this life.  The key is to not get to attached to any one state of being.  Yes it is winter now but spring is coming and so forth.  If you're a gardener you'll know that within the dormancy of the winter soil lies the potential for a full blown harvest of flowers come spring time. 

The message of nature can be even simpler than this.  Just in it's presence there is a majesty and effortlessness that allows us to feel our own majesty and effortlessness should we just give ourselves a brief enough moment to do so.

Here is a wee exercise if you choose to try it.

Wherever you are look up from your i-whatever and find the nearest natural object.  It might be a plant or rock paperwight on your office desk.  A fallen leaf at the foot of the bench your sitting on.  A beautiful green tree outside your window.  Sand beneath your beach towel. Snow on the footpath.  

Whatever it is stop and just observe it.  Like a baby would.  Openly.  As of you are seeing it for the first time.  

Now allow yourself to feel into it.  What quality does it have?  If you were to describe its 'personality' what would you say about it? 

Right now on my laptop I have a crystal.  It's blue.  Pale, pale blue.  Very sparkley from lots of little points but it looks soft.  It feels gentle, calm and steady.  

So what do you see and feel? Take a moment.  It can be brief. 

Now close your eyes and holding that image you've been gazing at, allow it to be absorbed gently into your body in the space where your heart is... give permission for it's qualities to be absorbed into your own being.

Enjoy this moment.

Now resume whatever it is you were doing, trusting that this subtle change you just felt can stay with you.

For those of you who have never meditated or believe you can't guess what... this 'exercise' we just did was a 'meditation'.

Meditation can be simple.  It needn't be hours on end sitting in a cave in tibet (though it can be this also sometimes and that's fine too).  Meditation ideally is life.  Or moments in life that become more frequent until there is so little space between them that they become more of us than the other stuff.  More on this to come in a post down the track i'm sure... stay tuned.  

Ooodles of love your way in the meantime and thanks for reading my first ever post!

Zoë