The best place to seek God....

The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Our rediscovery of nature's 'holy' qualities is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the last 100 years we have traveled from seeing the natural environment as something to be tamed or conquered to viewing it as something to be preserved and revered.

Chief Seattle's words from 1854 ring true:

“Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.”

This ecological awareness has led many of us to yearn for a more meaningful connection to the outdoors which is why I write my ‘serenity in the garden’ blog.

I see the piece of ground outside our doors as an everyday conduit to the energy of life that flows within plants, water, trees, sunlight, rocks, birds and assorted creatures. It is here, in a garden, where we can touch the divine.

Looking at nature in this way is nothing new. The idea of special or rarified outdoor space can be seen in the sacred groves of the Egyptians, Indians, Babylonians and Greeks. It is evident in the medieval world’s labyrinths and the Native Americans’ 'medicine wheels'. And of course Chinese geomancy,‘Feng Shui’, and Indian ‘Vaastu’ both hark back thousands of years.

Our enthusiasm for plants, spirituality and the unseen in the natural world has developed quickly. We seem to have suddenly realized that there is something more to the world around us than what we have been taught. There are few sages to advise us as we forge ahead in our pursuit of extraordinary awareness in the garden but we can look to past masters for guidance.

Great thinkers such as Lao-Tzu, Pythagoras and Emerson, among others, tell us of the power of the natural world and its impact upon the human spirit. Ancient cultures such as the Native Americans, Chinese and Celts have long standing traditions that teach us how to listen to the plants and the land. And lastly, the amazing, almost mystical, discoveries of modern science reveal the interconnections between us and the natural world.

I look to these three branches of exploration for inspiration for the entries that I write here. My blog is for you, the seeker / garden lover.  I believe that now, at the dawn of the 21st century, we can learn a lot from such discussions.   It is my firm belief that the 'numinous dimension' of a garden is where we will find the enchantment that we are all seeking....