There are few pathways to serenity in life more powerful than sunrise in the garden. To wake up with the sun, to see life start to open. The dew on the grass, the sound of the birds even the smell is different in the morning. It's as if everything has that "new car smell." Like the world has been given a second chance with the rising of the sun.
The same can be said at sunset in a garden. Perhaps because the world is preparing for sleep. The sun settles down and the heat begins to dissipate. In contrast to the morning no longer is that new car smell present. It has been replaced with the smell of a loved home, one that has been visited often. Even the birds seem slower. It's as if the garden is telling us regardless of how bad it was in the office, how tough it was with our children or how long that list of "intended" things remains, put it away! Building a garden gives a pathway to that beginning and end; and, a place to witness these moments in private.
George Bernard Shaw said "the best place to seek God is in a garden.. you can dig for him there." Regardless of ones belief, there is never a moment these words hold more truth then when witnessing a sunrise or a sunset. Especially when witnessed from the garden. Life is simply enhanced at this time. Why else would there be so many artists, photographers, architects and even gardeners that plan their work around these two moments, sunrise and sunset? Because there is power in the light!
Many a person have posted on social media "each morning I walk through my garden before I head to the office." A garden provides a direct path to what these two stages in our day really mean. A path enabling one to open their minds to the fact that they must rise, refresh and prepare for what is before them. And than... to put it away.
So in all things in life, find your garden; revel in the moment a garden provides! That moment to catch a sunrise and rest in a sunset. It doesn't matter if it's a single potted plant, a quarter of an acre, a plot of land in an allotment or fields and fields of pastures make it your space! Make the garden yours and meet me there, at sunrise in the garden.
