Emotional responses can powerfully transform the personal meaning of a garden. Many years ago, a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed park ranger received the birthday gift of his dreams. The young ranger embraced his mom with vivacious excitement and planted the hefty gift in a dry corner of the backyard. With his mom’s help, a weekend’s effort conceived a beautiful “park-like” water garden.
Years passed, and the young ranger now foresaw a future in botany. The amateur botanist’s enthusiasm for water plants and wildlife bloomed into a horticultural hobby. The water garden embodied his interests and helped a timid adolescent express himself.
Then, the spirit who encouraged his passion received a phone call concerning “test results.” Hope and sustenance suddenly throbbed with the pulse of monthly treatments and tests that determined the “status” of the affliction.
The young man spent timeless hours in the water garden, submerged in a meandrous stream of thought. The hollow walls of home creaked with distress but the farthest corner of the backyard, a place of life that he and his mom nurtured into existence, evolved with his confluent emotions. The garden transformed into his guilt of escape, sanctuary of hope, niche for helplessness, and personal reminder of his mom’s love and indelible spirit.
One morning, the young man awoke and looked through the back window. His mom stood at the corner of the backyard with her hands clasped behind her back, looking down into pond’s placid reflection. Even though he could not hear his nurturer’s thoughts, he listened as their unspeakable fear, love, and hope echoed from a water garden imbued with the dreams of years past and the promises of tomorrow.
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