letting go

and letting nature in...

when we moved here to this beautiful corner of cumbrian countryside, I thought I needed to ‘make’ a garden, I thought it was what you did...you had a house, and you had a garden, with grass to mow and full of the flowers you chose to put there

little did I know that living as we do surrounded by wild untamed nature that I didn’t stand a chance; I hacked back the ground elder, put an arrest warrant out on the bindweed, had stern talks with the buttercups, and nettles were personna non grata

I put in lots of lovely plants, took cuttings, planted seeds, loved the process of gardening; it could only take time, but impatience made me fretful: I wanted the garden in my head, now!

a period in my life of having no energy in my body to tackle these jobs created space, space for nature to reassert herself, and space for change in me and my way of living

rolling forward to a new time in our life and in the life of all of us here on the planet, I see that my greatest gift to myself and to nature was simply in letting go; my husband calls it benign neglect; we leave it alone and see what happens

there is perfect groundcover provided by ‘weeds’ and the ancient wisdom tells us of the food and medicines in the form of nettles, plantains, dandelions so many other beautiful beneficial plants

it seems that the less we do, the more space we create for ourselves and for wildlife, the greatest joy is being in our ‘garden’ full of rippling birdsong, simply sitting

it may not be for everyone, but a small corner allowed to be wild and free can bring benefits for us and the intricate web of nature of which we are simply a part

let me know what you think...