When the sounds of the environment become noise, whether due to shouting and arguments, the roar of traffic and its engines and horns, or construction work on streets and buildings, there is nothing like getting into a garden. In it, everything is tempered and calm, it calms down to the point of forgetting the unease due to the discordances of everyday life, of work, of relationships, of one’s own broken or injured health. If it is the case that this walk is accompanied by a different and happy vibration, because life at that moment is harmonious, that calm then becomes ample satisfaction for enjoying one more day of the beauty that simple environments give.
Whether in an urban park, in a charming little garden palace or in the garden itself, the gears to slow down are set in motion as soon as you walk through one of those green places, and you begin to perceive sensations and feelings blinded by the daily rush.
Perhaps one of those first sensations has to do with time, that everything and everyone dominates and tames. In a garden, time is different, because it is magnified and expanded, because the garden teaches that the scale is another larger one that is often not taken into account. It is then possible to wait several years for a tree to bear fruit, or for it to generate a minimum of acceptable shade to relieve the summer heat. Nor will it matter that that species has not had the proper flowering, because the following year it will give much more, thanks to the extraordinary care that the plant will receive. Time becomes an ally, because what you want is to see that small bush grow, step by step, until you get a large bush; With each new bud sprouted, with each new growth, the heart will leap with joy, in full synchronization with the clock of the seasons. This passing of the seasons will also join us, as we will remember what that plant was like two years ago, and how much it has changed. And if any season is to be the final arrival for the plant, the memory of its beauty will continue to nourish our seconds hand.
Insignificance is another of the sensations that arise, both under the century-old tree and next to the tiny grass, capable of growing in the apparent inane misery of sterile soils. There, one plant and another, make us feel small, because of what they are capable of doing, each one in its magnitude, and they become examples to follow. They, the plants, which have to face everything without being able to change location, show that adaptation is possible if you have the patience to survive and turn disadvantages into reasons to grow. At the foot of that enormous tree there is also the concern to know more about its history, for everything it will have experienced, for all the springs in which new leaves will have sprouted, challenging the climate, the time, the history, the own humanity that on many occasions has even mistreated him. And another feeling of futility in the face of human misery can invade the viewer, who will appreciate that life itself, like that of that tree, is what is important, and that everything material is accessory. In the same way, as one values one’s own life and that of that tree, one should value the rest of living beings, all of whom need the same things.
The wonders of the garden make us feel incredulous at the processes that take place there. One of them would be, for example, how synchrony occurs between different vegetables. When the trees let sunlight pass through to the earth, because they have shed their leaves, new grasses will sprout, which will bloom at the same time when the temperatures rise a little at the end of winter. Disbelief will also arise when you are aware that plants also use animals for their own benefit, as certain species do that feed ants in exchange for them protecting them from enemies, or for the pollination of their flowers by of bees and butterflies.
In this usefulness and help between species from different kingdoms, the feeling of the importance of the walker himself will also emerge. Without his care and affection, the garden is destroyed by taking a few steps out of place, by improperly breaking a branch, by allowing a little dog to dig where a flower sits. With the simple walk, the person takes care of the garden by keeping the path open, by appreciating what is beautiful in it and how much they want to enjoy it on future occasions.
Between these visits, the garden instructs, shows, shares its mysteries, which it reveals little by little, so that what has been learned remains well, as with all teachings transmitted with patience. With that feeling of how much there is still to learn about the garden and the plants, and everything that is associated with them, is what the gardener faces each day, with humility. Arrogance and self-sufficiency also have no place in the garden when one acquires the awareness of that humility that should govern the person, and of knowing oneself is expendable and in need of the help of others to carry out many of the tasks in the garden. From there arises a tacit and honest brotherhood that is created with other people in love with the gardening profession, with whom they exchange discoveries, insecurities, knowledge, doubts… without giving them greater importance than making the other a participant in what they do. little is known or much is unknown, and that, if today one is right, tomorrow one will be wrong. Coupled with the latter, there will also arise a lack of ambition to consider oneself important and to establish a position with each opinion, and the miseries of the ego will wither, since the road ahead is long, and it will not always be in a straight line. Patience, curiosity or passion will be the best companions to learn about the complex world of gardening.
The sensations and feelings that the garden provokes are a source of life. There, as if it were a philosopher’s stone, everything is transformed into gold, or into something much more valuable: the next flower that opens and its aroma, which will be diluted in the air.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#Sensations #garden #tempered #humble #curious