A journey in a secret garden.

A gift from nature offered freely and accepted with immense gratitude.

I was incredibly blessed on my nature walk today to stumble across a classic old English garden tucked away behind a wooden gate. I walked around the garden slowly and deliberately, adopting an expansive awareness and allowing my mind to settle entirely on the beauty of the flowers and plants. The garden is laid out in a traditional style, with wooden trellises forming delineated walkways. These were hanging with Wisteria vines wending their way round creating an effect of containment and beauty.

Wisteria vines gracefully growing and creating a living walkway

It is hard to describe the sense of calm and wonder that came over me as I made my way around the garden from walkway to walkway, noticing each hidden rose and rejoicing in bountiful offerings of chamomile.

chamomile flowers rejoice in the gentle rain

As I admired these marvels of nature I began to consider what they may mean to me. Still the most surprising discovery was yet to come. I was aware, in my peripheral vision, of a classic rectangular pond in the middle of these walkways and flowerbeds of delight. For some reason, perhaps simply because my attention was so intently pulled toward each plant I came across as I did so, I did not approach or even consider what awaited me in this obvious centrepiece of the garden.

magical english garden on a wet summer's day

Wonder anew as I approached the pond when the time came. Let me share with you what I found. The raindrops met their brethren molecules in the pond and kissed the leaves of water lilies as they fell. How incredible, I thought, that I should be practicing mindfulness and be provided by nature with this special gift of a sight of flowers so like the pink lotus flower.

You can find incredible joy and restoration if you adopt a 'beginners mind' as you explore nature. Never tell yourself that you have seen it all. As the old proverbs goes

no person ever steps in the same river twice,

for it's not the same river and they not the same person