Kevin If you’re new here, you’ll see that we talk a lot about self-care. If you’re not, then you know the drill. Today is Garden Meditation Day 2021, and it got its start roughly 10 years ago from what I’ve been able to glean about it. Someone by the name of C.L. Fornari came up with the idea, saying that “Garden Meditation Day honors the fact that when we’re working in the landscape we have the opportunity, if we choose to take it, to let the rest of the world fall away. This is indeed what meditation is: letting go of all thoughts, concerns, worries and focusing on just one thing…in this case, what we’re doing in the garden. It is as calming as a mantra, or focusing on the breath, to name two common forms of meditation. So those who seek a spiritual retreat, a calming yoga experience, actually have that in their own backyards!”
How ’bout you? What comes up for you when you hear the word “meditation?”
No, not “medication,” haha.
Maybe what comes up is stuff about yoga, which, don’t get me wrong, is indeed meditation.
Or maybe it’s stuff about certain religions, where they include something like it in their rituals. That counts too.
However, these aren’t the end-all, be-all of meditation. Far from it! Meditation can look like different things to different people, so what counts as meditation to me may be different from what counts as such to you.
No worries, though! There’s more than one way to skin a cat, like they say. Maybe meditation could be talking to whatever higher power you believe in, or talking to the universe if that’s what you consider a higher power.
Or maybe it could be going to the park and flying a kite, or journaling on an empty bench or an unused playground tunnel. Yes, I’ve done both of those, haha.
Or maybe if your place has a backyard, hanging out in the backyard either with or without the radio turned to your favorite station.
Anyway, from what I’ve gleaned about Garden Meditation Day, it’s about going out into your garden, maybe getting rid of some weeds, planting the seedlings you’ve started in your basement or the kitchen, or even burying the compost you’ve had in your kitchen ready to go.
For me, I’ve used up the compost I’ve had to fix the holes in my backyard, however, there was a deep dip in the front yard by the step and entryway that I felt like my compost and topsoil treatment could fix.
So I went into the she-shed and found the little garden shovel, brought over in the initial round of moving stuff over from the old house to this one, took one of the bags of cheapie topsoil I picked up at the store last week while the weather was still warm, along with the veggie scraps, teabags, and coffee grounds I kept in a paper lunch baggie in the kitchen, and filled that bad boy up.
It’ll be a little bit before it isn’t super obvious, and we get some grass growing over it, but it’s lookin’ better already!
Next up will be a patch in the front yard missing some grass, so next time I’m in the area, I’ll pick up a bag of cheap grass seed.
Now, I’m by no means a master gardener, and my green thumb sucks to no end. I mean, I got one of those Back to the Roots grow kits for tomatoes, and I’ve yet to see any of it grow.
Maybe I got a dud, idk. Either way, I’ll keep trying. I’m so over buying cherry tomatoes from the store when I get the hankering for some sliced in half, topped with some salt and pepper.
Great, now I’m making myself hungry, haha.
All that aside, Garden Meditation Day can also look differently to others, same way as meditation itself. If you don’t have access to a garden, or if it’s not something you’re interested in taking up anytime soon, then there’s no better time to hit up the park and get your meditation fix on!
Speaking of which, I wanted to go to the park last weekend and fly my kite, but other obligations took over, and I wasn’t feeling too good. (It had nothing to do with the pandemic, I pinky-swear! Nobody at my house has been exposed, so we’re safe, knock on wood.)
For me, my original plans for Garden Meditation Day were to grab the cheap lawn chair and little table I picked up from the dollar store, take it to the backyard, and hang out there with my notebook. Now that I finally cleared out the backyard and got everything that needed to come inside, it’s looking like a backyard should!
Unfortunately, the weather had other plans in store. It rained in my neck of the woods yesterday, and since the she-shed is still full of the old stuff from my day job by the doors, that was a no-go.
Instead, I decided to open both the windows, like I used to do at the old house, bring my dinner into my room, set my tray up, and take in the petrichor smell coming in with the breeze. I muted the TV, turned to the weather station on the Roku, and just let the sounds of nature speak for themselves.
It was sort of like dining al-fresco, in a way, haha. And it was a great way to salvage what turned out to be a crappy day from the get-go, and give that day to the universe.
Over to you, readers. Were you aware of Garden Meditation Day being a thing? If so, how’d you observe it? If not, no worries! It can be Belated Garden Meditation Day instead, so let’s talk.
