Touching Infinity in A Garden For The Soul
August 13th, 2011
“When I touch a flower… I am touching infinity”, is the quote inscribed into my wooden garden pergola. George Washington Carver felt and knew that when he worked with flowers, he experienced the infinite. When answering, “How do I talk to a little flower”, he responded: “Through it I talk to the infinite. And what is the infinite? It is that silent, small force. It isn’t the outer physical contact. No, it isn’t that. It is that still small voice that calls up the fairies. When you look into the heart of a rose there you experience it. But you can’t explain it.”
My pergola sits surrounded by gardens. It is a garden for the soul. Here I, and all who visit my garden, can look into the faces of flowers and see infinity in their mandala flower shapes. After all mandalas are tools to help us experience the infinite with their round shape and center focus. Most people find a sense of coming to their center when viewing a mandala.
Perhaps that is why gardens are sanctuaries for the soul, where the flowers guide us back home to our center. Some of the most beautiful mandalas are found in those silent places at the center of flowers. Even in 100 degree weather, I found a few minutes to sit in the shade of the pergola. It cools my soul to be surrounded by the beauty.
One of my favorite flowers grows next the pergola. It is rudbeckia subtomentosa, a type of Black-Eyed Susan. Pick a stem, put it in a vase and you have an instant bouquet. I’m sure the fairies are still dancing on these flowers even after being brought inside. The mandala shape with the black button center and radiating yellow petals call me to my center. My wish for all humankind is that when we spend time with gardens, flowers and nature, that we all touch infinity. And that infinity touches us back.
This is my first blog. Please join me in this journey where we can share a love and passion for gardens, art, mandalas, meditation and mystery. I look forward to sharing the beauty and power of the passions, loves and joys of others in creating a meaningful and joyous world.
