There is a book called The Well-Gardened Mind: the Transformative Power of Nature by therapist Sue Stuart--Smith and I would like to read it, along with a thousand other books that intrigue me.Yes, I am well aware that I'm living on borrowed time.
An introduction to a film interview with the author offers:
The pace of life is the pace of plants.
Sue Stuart-Smith’s book The Well Gardened Mind, argues that our increasingly urbanised and technology-dependent lifestyles make it more important than ever to rediscover a closer relationship with the earth. Sue tells brilliant, illuminating stories of people struggling with stress, depression, trauma and addiction, from asylum seekers to veterans, inner-city young people to the retired.
We are gardeners with both flower and vegetable beds around our home and beyond. They are the source of both sorrow and joy as we watch the miracle of perennials emerging in Spring and the success of our veggies. We have already eaten lettuce, kale (ugh) peas, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, and a green pepper from our raised beds -- hurray! Of course we deal with the disappointments, including the sins of theft by critters and humans. We had tomato plants in a raised bed in a community garden one year and as they were ripening for harvest they all disappeared. We stick to root vegetables in that bed now.
“Hi, Mr. Shultz! How did that plant vitamin work on your garden?”
Al Johns June 29, 1957
This summer drought has meant we are out at the crack of dawn to water our beds because plants would perish otherwise. We have wondered about retiring from gardening but we realize the psychological and spiritual benefits of continuing. We would like to think this effort is a spiritual discipline that contributes to the Well-Gardened Soul.
I have read some preview pages from Stuart-Smith's book and, lo and behold, she notes that there is a religious and spiritual background to the importance of gardening. She reminds us of Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century theologian, composer, and gardener who developed the notion of veriditas. This is the life force of greening, in contrast to ariditas, the life-defying opposite. For Hildegard, humans thrive when nature thrives
We all need well-gardened minds and souls. And when the body aches, there are drugs for that!
Here are a couple of links that may interest you.
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