Mindful Garden #1

Today is my first day tending to this garden area.

I estimate that it’s about 100‘ x 50‘.

At the current time, there isn’t a specific plan for the space, but I do know that I want some pacing affordances. Perhaps I could till the soil and plant some new greenery. I appreciate its wildness right now. I will start by keeping it mostly wild for now, then I will gradually let the path unfold by adding cedar wood chips.

Perhaps returning with fresh wood chips can be part of a new positive habit for me. I ‘wood’ look forward to discovering where the path extends. I imagine future projects that involve community, where everyone gets a turn adding wood chips to extend the path. If compacting the earth is possible, perhaps that would preferable to wood chips on future projects. Depending on the scale of future community projects, accessibility would determine the path materials (e.g., a deck instead of wood chips); however, for the current project, wood chips will suffice. The ground here is quite soft and turns into mud easily.

This mindful garden concept relates to my practice at Trust The Thread, where I explore what happens when mindful intuition leads the way in my creative practice; it also relates to the idea of indoor pacing affordances that I enjoy creating. Perhaps I will also include affordances for seated meditation, yoga, and social gathering.

I look forward to seeing what happens with this garden and the positive habits that unfold around it.

JDF