Can you see beauty?

We can get lost in the practical aspects of our gardens - the drainage, plants that die, plants that grow too big, where the hose might be stored neatly, lawns that need cutting, weeds that need pulling out, dead patches of, well, anything.  Can you stand still, or better, sit still, within your garden, breathe deeply and appreciate everything that it is instead of what it is not?  Can you stop and close your eyes and allow it to ground you? 

Often, people say to me, "Oh, I cannot invite you to my house because you will see how terrible my garden is."  This always makes me laugh because a garden is a garden - it is a place of the earth where the sun and shadows move, where things grow quietly, even if they are the weeds, where the breeze touches you and where there might be some peace. Gardens are like us, they never fit anyone's idea of perfect but they all have their own aspects of beauty. Grab a chair and five minutes and enjoy it exactly as it is.