Planting the Seeds of Change By Sharne Young

It is Spring!  So… gardening… Where do I start?  I am obsessed with all types of gardens, flowers, vegetable patches, indoor plants, soil, compost, and the action of gardening indoors and out.  Many of my dreams are about gardening. I wake up well before dawn because sometimes I am unable to stop thinking about gardening. I plot garden beds, imagine what the tiny shrub I planted will look like in 5 years’ time, and wonder if I can fit in another tree. My relatives and friends patiently listen to me wax lyrical about the bulbs coming up in my front yard, or about the new bare rooted columnar apple trees I got in the post in August and the minute details of the buds they are forming after planting them. I can see their eyes glaze over. I am sure when they eat the chemical free, fresh apples I provide they will be happy enough.

If I don’t have time in the garden to get my hands dirty planting something into the soil or at least to smell the earth and feel the grass beneath my bare feet, then I feel very unsettled and usually grumpy.  Doesn’t matter the weather, the time of day or where I am located.  I must be in greenery at some point.  I hope to do some moonlight gardening too at some stage.

Gardening is not everyone’s cup of tea. Many of the people I know like to look at gardens and they feel uplifted when they see a good one, but they don’t necessarily want to get their hands dirty.  It’s more of a chore.  Yet, the art of gardening is well known to be a therapeutic exercise in mindfulness. Forest bathing, Japanese Zen gardens, the art of Bonsai, meandering in a hedge maze all create peace and contemplation. (Well, maybe not the hedge maze if you get lost in it!)  The world outside is hushed. We start to notice the immediate details of what is in front of us, positive sensations are felt. If we stay in that space and look even closer, more details emerge, more sensations. 

They say the more you contemplate the more you find. The perfect geometry of a daisy, even the weedy one in the lawn.  If you like to quilt or embroider then find the patterns in the lawn. The overlap of shades of green and the textures. If you paint, the imagination can go wild in a garden.  Many famous and not so famous paintings are out there depicting the colour and vibrancy of the natural world and the landscaped one.

The painting I did for the ‘Meadows’ oracle card – No. 39 was done on such inspiration.  I am no Claude Monet, but gardens do inspire me to be creative.  The daisies and the lavender in this card were easy to create and came from my garden at the time.  I had a dream of an old couple like Adam and Eve in that they were the only ones there and they were wandering through a jewel of a garden that gave them such intense satisfaction, pleasure and peace.  I had those feelings too in that dream. I have to say words don’t describe what I saw and felt in the dream.  I hope you can imagine – the air was full of the hum of insects, the smells of honey and sweet earth and all the colours of the rainbow. There was such abundance in that dream and in that garden. 

When we dream of gardens there are of course metaphors and interpretations. A barren garden in a dream can mean we feel empty or our purpose in life is hidden from us, the love we have of the self is diminished.  A garden with patches of bare soil in a dream can mean there are opportunities available or missed depending on your view.  Or there are health issues that can be resolved if tended to with love and care.  A full verdantly lush garden in a dream can mean you have it all already. The path of your life is full, meaningful and abundant. Nothing needs to change as it will change naturally.  It can also mean you have a wonderful imagination that needs only to fertilise the garden (in the heart and mind) every now and then to keep it going.

Card 39 recommends getting out into the garden no matter where you are. A park or bushland if you don’t have your own garden. Be inspired, be mindful, be creative. Connect to the earth and feel the abundance. 

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