Ahhh, Chanticleer...
Enter the woods as ferns unroll,
And earth meets sky,
You'll roll down the hill as if you were five,
When lilacs crossed the sky.
Enlivened by color,
Peace enters in,
As though spores of pleasure
Blew in the wind.
What can you say
When all breathes Shalom,
Silent the bliss
That knows its way home.
It is hard to write prose about Chanticleer. Last Sunday I experienced the new woodland walk. It was as if I was on some favorite hike through a valley tween the Green Mountains, and all around me Nature was so happy, so fulfilled, so fully alive, that it felt as if it was coming alive in its heavenly aspect. Swathes of new foliage and wildflowers unrolled between the trees. The smells of this time of year, when the lilacs, ferns, lilies of he valley, and who knows what else, are so intensely in bloom that the air turns sweet to envelope consciousness. After about 20 minutes of this I started to feel such a peaceful, lively happiness that I could have blessed everything and everyone I have ever known.
Such moments do not last, probably are not meant to. But the garden is one of the best signs of them that I know.
A natural garden, if done well, is where the plants are happy, well-nourished, expressing themselves in all their fullness. It is as if they are singing as you walk, and you sing back. As if you sustain each other, nurture each other, enjoy each other, celebrate each other, making a reciprocal ecosystem.
And what is best is that when you get home to your own small plot, the beauty experienced at Chanticleer makes your own garden feel that much better. It enhances your sensitivity to the beauty around you and the reciprocal relationships you experience.
Yes the world can still be a bad place. This is not a hallucination; it is an alternative. An alternative to cultivate and give thanks for.
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