What has gardening got to do with self-awareness? And do we garden Nature, or does Nature garden us?
These are some of the questions raised in a book by the permaculture expert Alison Ensor. We are part of nature, not above it, she insists.
In our JB Blog we explore links between our sense of beauty, morality and personal awareness. This book covers many of those bases.
It begins by looking at the gardener’s enemies and frustrations: plagues of thistles, nettles, bindweed, couch grass, docks and dandelions. And invasions of plant guzzlers like snails, slugs, rabbits and voles.
The book shows how these trigger bitter or angry feelings and a sense that the gardener is separate from nature and struggling to tame it. But with greater understanding of the ecosystem, we can see that the pests come with side benefits for other species. The sudden “plagues” won’t last long and it’s possible to adapt to them and move towards a spirit of calm acceptance.
We Are Part of Nature
We are introduced to the philosophy of permaculture, a way of gardening sustainably in order to boost biodiversity and the long-term health of the soil.
We also learn about interoception – the so-called “eighth sense.” It’s a way of realising what you feel through sensing the reaction in different parts of your body. It may also involve imagining textures, colours or shapes. These emotions are embodied and therefore very powerful and real.
Alison Ensor encourages people to check their responses to different elements of nature: herbs, shrubs, trees and plants. Surprisingly some of these reactions will be highly negative – angry or upsetting. The aim will be for the subject to inspect their feeling and allow it to come fully into the open.
The hope is that they will learn to accept their response, and come to terms with the hurt or fury that they have been carrying inside them. They must have been carrying that emotional baggage – or they wouldn’t be projecting it onto the innocent plants!
Some people can’t let go of those feelings and the sense that “they must be right” and other people or things are wrong. Or it may take a long time to achieve the reconciliation.
We Are Part of Nature
The book nudges us to realise that we ourselves are a small part of the giant ecosystem of nature. It is something far greater than us that includes the whole universe of natural creation. We are duty bound to protect it.
We need to experience this sense of oneness in our hearts, “since our felt sense of love and intuited wisdom is who we really are.” It concludes that if you are successful: “Loving yourself means you will love all the rest of you too, even the weeds and the slugs and the snails.”
Natural Emergence: Gardening an Awakening £13.99 from troubadour.co.uk.