{"id":3379,"date":"2023-06-26T17:48:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T21:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/?p=3379"},"modified":"2023-06-26T17:48:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T21:48:42","slug":"life-is-a-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/26\/life-is-a-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Life is a Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>It occurred to me this afternoon that maybe Life is like a walk in an enormous garden. There\u2019s no required goal or specific path for you to take, no ultimate destination in mind. Instead, it\u2019s about being present in the moment, feeling the sun on your face and the wind against your skin. It\u2019s about climbing trees or bending your knee to smell a hyacinth. It\u2019s about hearing the crunch of your feet against the gravel on the path and the sound of the birds and squirrels and other assorted wild things all around you.<\/span>\n

Maybe Life is about listening and watching for meaningful instants so that they don\u2019t pass you by, unnoticed among all the other moments to either side of them. Maybe it\u2019s about the whole experience, all those moments sewn together in a journey well\u2014or poorly\u2014spent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe sometimes, when we come into the garden, we see a sign announcing an orchid display and we say, \u201cOh! I *must* see the orchids! I want to do that more than anything!\u201d And so for that trip, the destination and the purpose is all about the orchids. We go, and we view all the lovely blossoms and twining stems and oddly shaped leaves, and when we\u2019ve seen them all, we go home. And it doesn\u2019t matter that we saw nothing else but orchids on that trip because we can always go again. The garden is far too large to see it all in one visit; each time we go, we see something new. Maybe most times we take the same familiar paths we\u2019ve taken before and still see new things; maybe sometimes we take newly discovered trails and find segments of the whole we never knew existed before.<\/span><\/p>\n

As long as we remember that the garden is not all birds and butterflies and flowers, we can move through the garden with our hearts and our minds open. It takes both predator *and* prey to fill a garden, and both joy *and* sorrow to fill a life. If we forget that and focus on only the fear or sorrow or pain, moving through the garden with our senses closed and shut away, the trip is wasted; Life\u2014and the garden\u2014is an experiential mystery that cannot be understood or enjoyed except by full immersion, no matter which path you take.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s really that simple. And that complex.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It occurred to me this afternoon that maybe Life is like a walk in an enormous garden. There\u2019s no required goal or specific path for you to take, no ultimate destination in mind. Instead, it\u2019s about being present in the moment, feeling the sun on your face and the wind against your skin. It\u2019s about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-Sv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":421,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/16\/long-stemmed-roses\/","url_meta":{"origin":3379,"position":0},"title":"Long-stemmed Roses","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"October 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, Bobby and I walked on the beach in the chill Autumn drizzle. Among our discoveries of a tiny moss-like crab lurking among the branches of a beached coral, a string of shells, and darting sanderlings, we found a long-stemmed pink rose. Far past its prime, the thing looked sad,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4462,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/27\/precious-resource\/","url_meta":{"origin":3379,"position":1},"title":"Precious Resource","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"June 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"As an indie author who also works a day job, I stay busy. All. The. Time. I jokingly say that\u2019s a good thing. That it keeps me out of trouble. But in truth, I often feel overwhelmed with all the things on my to-do list. 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In these pages, Maia\u2014who was assigned female at birth (AFAB) and now uses the Spivak pronouns e\/em\/eir\u2014tells eir story of gender confusion from childhood to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A youth standing knee-deep in water, looking down at their reflection. The above-water youth has short hair, a t-shirt, and shorts; the reflected youth has long hair, is topless, and is wearing shorts. 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A Prayer for the Crown-Shy By Becky Chambers \u00a9 2022 TorDotCom ASIN: B09CNFL3W7 Kindle Version; file size 5020 KB Paperback, 152 pages It\u2019s years after The Awakening, when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Psalm-188x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":548,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/15\/living-our-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":3379,"position":4},"title":"Living Our Stories","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"January 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In writing workshops, teachers and advisers (and agents\/publishers) all say that regardless of genre, a book's word count is limited. In science fiction, for example, the standard acceptable word count ranges between 90K and 120K. 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