In nature a garden is a thing without walls. It is a place of freedom and openness, where the trees and the grass and the flowers are not cut off from those of other gardens, or from one another; they are free to intermingle and grow together, the same sky is above them all, the same sun gives them light, the same clouds give them shade and rain. In the natural garden, harmony exists in freedom and openness and a shared environment, and those that are cut off from this community are those that wither and fade. Those that thrive are those that are connected, and free to grow as they are.
In the culture in which we live, I think we are prone to building walled gardens. We separate and compartmentalize, we isolate and put parameters around how we are allowed to grow and live. We build ourselves a box of rules, a structure that we think we can be comfortable and safe inside, and we place this box at one end or the other of a straight line; at one end of this line is openness, at the other isolation. Somewhere along this spectrum we place our box, and are encouraged to leave it there, to find the “right” spot and stay put; moving about requires effort, and and some level of adjustment to our walled garden, which is uncomfortable and unfamiliar; we are used to a clear definition of what is Ours, and what is Other. This keeps us confined, gives us little space to explore or grow.
When one lives one’s life within a walled garden one never gets to experience the beauty that lies outside one’s own walls; the glory of other trees and flowers and grasses; the freedom of being able to move about and know other sights and sounds and smells; the goodness of the strange and the unknown.
It is a hope and a goal of mine to unmake the walls that I have built around my garden; to experience the Other as connected to me; to breathe the free air, and be confronted with things new and challenging and inspiring to me; to know freedom and connectedness as two parts of a greater whole. I want to experience the other gardens of the world, not merely by glimpsing them over a wall, but by walking through them; feeling their grasses, smelling their flowers, tasting their airs. I want to better understand and remember that each of these gardens is but a part of a greater forest, and each is connected in one way or another to the same Source.