Mindful thoughts for GARDENERS by Clea Danaan was one of the books that I got for my birthday back in June and it’s only 159 small pages long. It seemed like a good one to read while it’s not really possible to get any actual gardening done.
The blurb on the back says: Gardening is so much more than planting seeds and turning compost; it is a spiritually enriching activity that reconnects us to nature everyday. Mindful Thoughts for Gardeners sows a series of meditations about tending the earth, rooting each thought in a practice that can lift our souls, as well as the soil.
This is a very cute wee book with some pretty illustrations by Lehel Kovacs.
Mindfulness was all the rage a while ago, but I feel that I’m far too level headed to be attracted to such fads. I already knew about everything in this book regarding gardening and what it can do for your mental health and well-being.
However if you’re a bit of an airy fairy type then this might be the book for you. At one point the author mentions that her ten month old baby crawled out of the back door and a long way to the bottom of the garden, and she looked all over the house for her before finding her!! It’s safe to say that her mothering skills are less than ideal.
However there is a section (p 54) on how important it is to have houseplants to nurture, especially if you live in an apartment. There were drug deals going on in the neighbourhood but – ‘The pots of plants sitting proudly on the artificial grass-covered balcony brought a sense of normalcy and nature to our space.‘ I’m sure I’ve said it before but I can’t stand that word ‘normalcy’ the word should be normality. Yes I have a real prejudice there but we all have our quirks!
I suspect that my opinion on this book would be exactly the same as yours – including the aversion to “normalcy”. As soon as I saw this I concluded the author is American and checking with Google proved me right. But don’t get me started on “upcoming”…..
Janet,
There are definitely many differences between English as we speak it and American. Dove instead of dived is another one that I really dislike, but I hear it creeping into English now.
“normalcy” is an American thing and sounds just fine to us across the pond đŸ˜€
Too bad the book was not what you had hoped. At least you got to think about your garden for a little while though so that’s something!
Stefanie,
There was a time in the past that normalcy seemed weird even to Americans! You can read of Warren G. Harding’s experience of the word here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_normalcy