It started this spring as a way to slow myself down. If you have ever met me, you would guess right away that I am a real “spark plug”. “Slowing down” and me have never been friends. I am slowed down by excessive heat and major snowstorms. Well, no, not by the snowstorms because I make quilts all winter to avoid being “slow and unproductive.”

Last autumn, my husband scored 10 days off from work unexpectedly. I was behind in my garden chores. “Perfect!” I quickly scratched down a “honey-do” list the size of Texas. I smiled my best smile as I presented it to him. My glee was not met with the same energy.   

“Just because you can’t sit on the couch doesn’t mean other people don’t choose to.”

Yikes. So began a 24 hour Grrrrrrrrr. “Well how can that be???” I thought. “How can people not want to do stuff all the time, get stuff done, make things happen???” “Whadayamean, some people LIKE to just sit???”

Wow. As his words swirled around me, I came to a new understanding. I had spent so much time overachieving, I hadn’t stopped to consider EVERYONE didn’t want to be an overachiever. As it swirled faster and tighter, I realized that maybe I occasionally wanted, needed and might even enjoy some time doing…..gulp….nothing.

So onto how this is a garden blog. (I have mentioned before and will again….rambling manure. It is what I do…….)

This spring I scoped out an area for a “Meditation Garden”. I envisioned a spot where I would sit and contemplate. Relax and do nothing. It began on the morning of spring equinox. I marked the spot where that morning’s first sunbeam landed on the ground in my garden. As a gardener, it made sense to start by following the season’s best “Welcome Spring!” day. It was pretty early in the morning. The birds were singing in the otherwise quiet dawn. Perfectly, that sunbeam lit up a spot under my large pine trees.

From that spot, I marked out a 10 foot across circle, the ESWN directions with bricks I had sitting around. I put a bench in the back SW spot, which would then look out over my garden. I sat. Hmmm.

Over the next weeks and months of spring/early summer, every time I dug up a rock, I added it to my circle. I had a few small piles of rocks here and there from digging thru the years. I collected them and added them to the circle. Finally I circumvented. I tried to add a few Coleus to the edge, but only a few of them decided they wanted to be part of my circle. Life is tough under big white pines. There is nothing to DO.

I decided that once in my circle, I had to sit. No sitting and then spying a weed and getting up to pull it. Cuz once I am up, I am out of the circle. I also am not allowed to think any critical thoughts about what I haven’t gotten done in my garden. (The overachiever isn’t ALLOWED in my circle!!)

The back of the Meditation Garden looks on to my Utility Area. Stacked pots, bags of potting soil, tools. Usually a complex mess. That had to be hidden, it spoke of work to be done. After discussing my needs with an architectural salvage guy (thanks Steve!), we came up with the idea to use old tall shutters and a skinny door or two to create a ½ circle around the back for screening. Presto! The view was changed and it was cool.

A fellow gardener told me I created an adult “time out” area.

Now if I could just find time to sit in it.

Happy Dreaming of new gardens, new adventures and new growth.

~Erica