What Grows a Zen Garden...?
- Kayleigh
- Apr 18, 2022
- 3 min read
I was feeling a little scattered today and tried meditating outside. It helped but not enough. Then my eyes fell on my little Zen garden... I used to work in an office. I worked there for many years while I raised and educated my only child. I can promise you it was not a good fit for my personality. I rarely felt like I fit in and every day was an enormous effort on my part to try to respond in the way I thought was expected; the way 'everyone else' responded. It was taxing, and stressful. The only reason I made it as long as I did was for the handful of people who surrounded me and quietly accepted me. Those people made it infinitely easier for me for a very long time. Today, because of my Zen garden, I was thinking of one of those people in particular. She was a supervisor in the program I worked. We rarely worked together but once or twice a year our worked intersected. Otherwise, we just chatted and waved when we saw each other.
She had a reputation for being meticulous, which in an environment like that, means people are wary of you. She was (and I am sure still is) ethical, detail-oriented, goal-driven, and delivery focussed.
All of which is corporate-speech for Type A nit picker; and I mean that generously. I KNOW the world would not run if it was peopled only with people like me. I celebrate the Type A people.
She was also (and I am sure still is) witty, clever, whimsical, open minded, and one of the kindest, most thoughtful and generous people I have ever had the pleasure to know. I like her very much.
The reason I was thinking about her today is because my Zen garden is actually hers.
Someone else packed my desk so the garden - which she had dropped at my desk "...so it is safe and well used while I am gone..." for the duration of her vacation. Somehow, it never left. So, when I opened my box of things, there it was to greet me. Now, it's not as though I had nothing else to remember her by. This wonderfully thoughtful woman, returned from a vacation one year (which I didn't even know was happening until she was nearly due to return) with whimsical faerie stickers (because she had learned I had an affinity for stationery supplies) and a miniature Stonehenge. She wandered in one day after her return and quietly handed them to me and simply said, "I saw these while I was away and I thought of you. Couldn't leave them there."
I still build it now and again when I feel the need to (as she told me) "...leave it in the window for the Solstice (full moon/eclipse) and see what messages you get..."
This woman showed me immense generosity of spirit and had a seemingly boundless supply of thoughtfulness. I watched her be different from most of the other people she worked with and yet be peaceful in their environment. I never truly learned how to do that. It's one of the reasons I don't work in an office any longer. So, today, as I allowed myself to be hypnotized by the patterns emerging in my garden, I thought of her and her peace and silently thanked her for everything she taught me. Turns out, there is more than one way to meditate.
Peace Out, Lovelies