A Mysterious Record of Life

Finding Your Inner Druid: Gardening as a Spiritual Path

I have spent many hours in the past few weeks building and tending the gardens around my home. During that time I have sweat into the earth as I dug and planted and cultivated patches of earth, nurturing some plants and pulling other plants up by the roots.

My cat, normally an indoor lap cat, has been outside, joining me in the garden. She seems aware of primal forces that she is otherwise removed from in her day to day activities. I can relate to her new awareness.

The green life (plants) and the brown life (fungi and bacteria) contain palpable life energy that is invigorating to my mammalian flesh. The dirt beneath my fingertips feels good. The earthy scent of roots and worms is a refreshing change from deodorants and scented fabric softeners. There is something real in my garden, something not contained in digital keystrokes or first person virtual environments. The sun beams light into these fantastic green plants filled with phytochemicals that quite literally turn light into energy. How do some people forget that these kind of wonders exist around them every day?

The ability to manipulate the soil, to till it and add to the the fertility of a given piece of land by adding compost and other beneficial components to the soil is akin to practicing a living alchemy. Cultivating herbs and food producing plants means that we can again quite literally eat of the fruit of our labor. Even those of us living in the city have the ability to produce more food than we can eat, utilizing the small plots of earth around our homes.

For those of you that live in rural settings this line of thought may seem mundane. "Of COURSE plants are all around us creating food for us," I can hear you saying, "and this is news or something?" For many of us living in the modern urban world, it is really counter cultural behavior to plunge our hands into the earth. We make a conscious choice to grow something other than grass around our homes. The division between those who are part of the cycle of life that produces food and and those that only consume, creates a schism wherein it is possible to see nature as a commodity rather than a sacred rhythm.

I am learning that finding natural rhythms can be easier than I thought possible. It is in the warm humidity of decaying leaves, in the lapping of the water on the riverbank, the waxing and waning of the moon, and in the beat of my own heart when I sit in silence.

The birds and pesky squirrels know that spring time is full of excitement and new life. As summer approaches, I turn my attention toward my garden to help sooth away the stresses of modernity. The ice and snow of last winter are only memories now; the idea of a sterile, white, and ice covered landscape seems ludicrous while touching the verdant ferns and flowering plants around me.

Labels: cat, garden, gardening, life, plants, spiritual path

JB aka JayBee created this post at 3:04 PM.