June...A Little Breathing Time In the Garden

Around here, June is a great month in the garden. 
This is when it shows its glory, beauty and abundance; weeds and fungus have not taken over yet and usually there is enough rain for the lush greenery to make you feel like you live in a tropical area.(At least in this area.) Thus, June is a time for relaxing, breathing and enjoying the outcome of all your hard work from the previous year - cultivating the fruits your soul has to offer and bringing them inside to savor in your home. It is a time of  taking a retrospective assessment of what you love and any possible changes you may want to make in your gardens for next year.  

I awake, thinking of taking a soulful daily stroll through the gardens as the dogwoods, iris, peonies, roses, clematis and even some late blooming poppies burst into bloom.  For me, although I have some breathing time from the gardening chores, it is a time to quickly set up my easel and do some daily sketches or plein air paintings of the gardens and take the photos of flowers which will sustain my studio work, through the long winter months in this area.  Every few minutes it seems, I am reminded to take a deep breath, smelling the last of the  sweet woodruff scent as it mixes with the rose perfume wafting on the light wind.  I step away from my painting,  and  feel a new burst of creativity as my soul is rejuvenated. That is what deep breathing can do for us all. Soulfulness is taking the time to notice everything around you. It is keeping all of your senses aware of the beauty in everything you encounter. 

Breath work is great for the soul....if you are doing it right. These days, so many of us are struggling just to make it through today and on to the next. The evening news can cause enough stress to make you hyperventilate, if you let it. Enter the garden...a place for quiet contemplation and relaxation, breathing space. Just a few highly scented plants, like jasmine or heliatrope, (a vanilla - cinnamon - fruit scent, noticeable in early morning and evening) in planters on a porch or balcony, can send intoxicating smells to apartments next door. 

Years ago I had read a great book by author Nancy Zi.   In it Nancy writes, 
"Breathing 
is our most important act -- 
we do it every moment of our lives, some 20,000 times each day.  Breathing incorrectly can produce tension, exhaustion and vocal strain, and can interfere with athletic activity and encourage aches and illnesses. Breathing correctly, however, nourishes every fiber of our body and soul. Breathe correctly and you can melt away tension and stress, improve energy or simply relax and unwind." 
Her book: The Art of Breathing  may be found at:   http://www.theartofbreathing.com/ .  

During June, try to learn some of Nancy's Zi's techniques, or just practice slow, deep breathing and sensing all that is around you. Take a moment, each day, (even if only once a day), to stop and do some deep breathing outdoors - shutting out every other intrusion in your life. Listen, smell, feel the wind, stop and look for a new sight you have overlooked in your daily travels. It will change your life in one week. The second week, practice again daily, as you stroll through a garden -  you will see things in a new light.  If you are not near a garden, purchase some highly scented flowers place them in a relaxing spot in your home and practice the art of breathing near them.

Take advantage of June's gift to relax and breathe....it is a step toward cultivating  and enhancing your soulful life.  

Peonies

Yellow Rhododendron

Clematis

Pinwheel Mountain Laurel buds with Colorado Blue Spruce and  Pineapple Mint variegated groundcover

The entrance

Honeysuckle vine about to burst into bloom

A perennial succulent planter

Otto ... The art of breathing.

The Garden as a Metaphor for Life

The garden is a metaphor for life, and gardening is a symbol of the spiritual path."~ Larry Dossey 

Full Moon by Gail Allen

Paying very close attention to who you are and what you are wanting is almost unheard of in these crazy, busy times we live in, but none – the - less is needed. as much, if not more so, than ever before. We are living in a new era where the world around us changing minute by minute, in unparalleled ways.  The need to keep ourselves openly aware of the subtle intuitive realms within us and hold fear and loneliness at bay is a lofty goal, to say the least. Doing this will undoubtedly though, uphold the important evolution we are all experiencing.

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.

                                                                  - Elizabeth Lawrence

Yakima Dwarf Rhododendron

  This is spring in the garden, as we grow older. A yearly reminder of what we once knew -  the magic that is there, if we pay attention. Chartreuse greens bright with wonder and an array of beautiful color bursting from blossoming trees, flowers and shrubs. Scents abounding; even the spring rains have an distinct smell to them. Nature is calling.

"All my hurts my garden spade can heal." 

                                                                            -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Grape Crab Apple

Japanese Maple,

  The moods we have are not the important factors in our experience. Instead, how we interpret, deal with and express them, on our own very personal level, whether it be through writing, gardening, painting, building, sculpting, acting, decorating or through interaction by way of sports. Healing the wounds of the past comes from acknowledgment that whatever you are needing, be it solitude, a lovely place of romanticism in the garden, a tribute to a memory with a meditative spot, a magical garden or just a bright, joyful, playful garden to appease the child within you, - that the place you create is a place of comfort to your soul. It should feel soothing to you like a warm blanket by the fire, or a child wrapped in his or her mother’s arms. The messages of the soul have no judgment factor to them…they are simply making you aware of what you need to resolve to open and walk through the next door.

"Show me your garden ... 

  and I shall show you what you are." ~ Alfred Austin 

 

Honeysuckle Vine on Arbor

White Crab Apple

It is our conscious mind that takes that message and turns it inside out, analyzing the why, what about, what for and how, etc. The soul simply states this needs to be attended to, pay attention so we may understand and move forward.
By intuitively honoring its messages and creating a place for us to interpret and observe our own soul’s landscape: the attributes, characteristics, feelings, fragrances, sounds and colors, as well as the plants that grow there and any sort of means required to rest in this spot, we are honoring those aspects of our self and giving ourselves permission for them to come forth in a safe place and time that we have created.
It's Spring...a time of new beginnings...eggs hatching everywhere around us in nature. Why not create your own chance at hatching a buried treasure, or idea deep inside of you that has been waiting for this moment to arrive. Whether on a city balcony, in a cooperative garden setting, or on your own property...it is a time of new beginnings .... enjoy the beauty of Spring!

Virginia Snow bell, Blue Spruce, Yellow Cyprus

Water garden, Japanese Maple, Japanese Iris, Sedum

So get some paper and a garden catalog, or two. List (or cut pictures out of) the colors, textures, flowers, shrubs, trees and grasses that appeal to you. Look in magazines or on the web and find examples of gardens, follies, benches, chairs, tables, stumps, rocks, shells, statues, etc, that call out to you…"pay attention to me". What does the garden of your soul look like? You will be amazed at the beauty you will create and this in turn will help heal our planet. Springtime is full of the creativity nature offers unfurling into a beautiful creation right before our eyes. Now is the time...Enter the garden!

“A healthy garden is a reflection 

                                     of a healthy soul.” ~Anonymous