Garden Walk

A favorite time of day for me is after dinner, when I’m showered, relaxed, and holding a glass of red wine.  It’s quiet observation time, or as I tell my family as I head out the back door, time to see what’s what in the garden. 

It’s like slow breathing.  The energy of the day has been drawn in and quiet settles the pace.  At this time of day, I can touch the more obscure aspects of gardening.

And in one’s own garden, every leaf and stem has a story.  But when visiting another, it’s interesting to see what strikes you.

A few days ago I was able to enjoy my evening garden walk at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond.  Prior to their evening event, I was able to stroll through the gardens with my glass of vino, alone and reflective.  The first thing that struck me was the thought, “what a difference!”  All prior experiences at the LGBG (a gardener’s CBGB?  WelI, I was there for a concert….) involved moms and kids, namely me and my mom and my kids.

I could hear my sons’ sandals slapping across the footbridges as my mother called, “You’re watching them?  You don’t want them to fall in!”

They won’t fall in.  And if they do, I can fish them out and enjoy the memory with them forever.

But, in her defense, I was obviously used to my kids’ ways.  Any wooded periphery to a playground proved more appealing than the new state of the art jungle gym.  Exploring the unknown, seeing what’s around the bend drew them more than the curvy slide or fake steering wheels.  In other words, they’d pick what’s real and changing over the contrived, and playtime meant being leopards in the jungle rather than astronauts on a spaceship.  The play structure is the same this week as it was last week - unless of course there’s yellow caution tape blocking access to the ladder, which all of a sudden makes it extremely interesting.

Boy in Garden

Enthusiasm on Nature

NFS

And if you think about it, kids are nature – in fact, we all are.  As we explore and interact with what’s around us, we learn so much about the world and what’s real in ourselves.  Children do a pretty good job reminding us how to do that.  Our job is to let them.  And if they do go too far and fall in, fish them out and recognize that they’ve learned something.  Like anything in nature, they’ll adapt.