Book Discussion: The Garden Awakening - Designs to Nurture Our Land and Ourselves by Mary Reynolds
Public Welcome Free Event Program/Speaker Presentation Wheelchair Accessible Public Restroom Free Public Parking
Join us for a discussion of Mary Reynolds' inspiring book The Garden Awakening. This book is based in the UK, and though plants mentioned in it are not native to our bioregion, the spirit of it's principles of healing the earth, its fascinating ideas for natural design and its encouragement for gardeners to foster a meaningful, reciprocal connection with the land will resonate with Wild Ones.
From Mary Reynolds' website about The Garden Awakening--Designs to Nurture Our Lands and Ourselves, (Also go to the website to watch an endorsement from the late Jane Goodall.):
After many years as an internationally acclaimed garden designer, Mary Reynolds finally realised that something was amiss in her gardens; they were failing on some level. Unwilling to remain as she had imagined and sculpted them, the gardens could not help following their true nature. They were not still life paintings. The land had dreams and intentions of its own…
Mary set out to discover what these intentions were, exploring how we might build a relationship with our gardens that encourages the truth of the land to be expressed alongside our own truth and creativity.
Inside The Garden Awakening is the forgotten bible of gardening. Mary divined and collected old ways of working with land from before we lost the connection with the earth beneath our feet. None of this information is new; it is all ancient, forgotten knowledge and wisdom, buried in the roots of our ancient cultures and within the depths of the earth itself.
Mary has spent a lifetime learning how to live gently with the land, weaving the knowledge out of her own stories, experiences and dreams and bringing it into the light in a way that rips away any mystery or separation from the worlds of energy and spirit around us, and the world of the earth beneath us.
The Garden Awakening is a blueprint for a ground-breaking garden, but it is not a solitary space. Instead it aims to be the foundation of a world wide web of ever expanding, living, interconnected ecosystems. Places where people and nature are one and creation and interrelation expands. You will never be able to look at your garden in the same way again…
Everything becomes simple if you immerse yourself in nature. Life’s complications melt away, leaving only the truth of the present moment, and the presence of what I call God. In this place we can see our soul reflected in every living thing, every gust of wind and splash of rain, and here we can find peace. This is our true home. Yet we are losing what little wild places we have left in nature, those corners where the spirits of the earth are flowing freely, where harmony, and balance still exists and we feel accepted for the truth of who we are. We have gone off course and need to find our way again. An old pathway, overgrown and forgotten, is waiting impatiently to lead us back home. Nature is willing us on.