What is a Garden?

It seems every year our flower and vegetable garden produces one thing in abundance over the rest.  This year it was the small cherry type tomatoes.  We had hundreds and hundreds of these little juicy pop in your mouth delights.

It was these tomatoes travelling to neighbors and friends by the bowl full and it is always wonderful to watch the smiles and sparkle in the eyes of others as they gaze at and sample whatever is being shared. It is even more wonderful to know the gardener passes these gifts on with just as much delight. 

So the old Chinese Proverb “he who plants a garden plants happiness” is right!

I'd like to think that perhaps a garden is not just a plot of land for growing vegetables, flowers, fruit, or shrubs - to me there may be other kinds of gardens.  I wonder if anywhere we are nurtured and allowed to grow, develop, and flourish is a garden setting. 

 

Our home and neighborhood is a place where we plant roots and provide an environment for our family to be cared for and grow to be healthy and strong.  It’s a place where we want to be and feel nourished, supported, protected, and safe. 

 

Our many levels of schools and learning centers nurture and tends to our needs from childhood to adults so we can establish a strong foundation from which we can give our best and blossom through our accomplishments.  Our job, hobbies, and passions can also be a place for us to establish ourselves, to grow, mature, and display our potential and talents.

 

So here’s the question - could any place that nourishes and supports our body, mind, and soul to blossom and flourish also be considered a kind of garden?

 

I wonder if perhaps it might even be that place in our heart that fills up and sometimes overflows with pleasure, caring, giving, and love ... oh, I think this one sounds like the gardener!