Philadelphia is called America's Garden Capital. This photograph is of a cedar trained to form a gateway to the vegetable garden at Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Gates are places of transition — here, from the wide, uncultivated lawn to a good sized vegetable and herb garden on the other side. But gates are also symbolic of the transition or movement to an inner place — an inner garden. We all have an inner garden whether we tend to it or not.
The Genesis story tells us we were created and placed in a garden. Adam and Eve made an important decision in that garden. And Jesus struggled with the biggest decision of his life in a garden. This lovely and totally natural gateway suggests, Come away, inside.
The inner garden is our real prayer place. My prayer is silence now — it is where I am simply aware of God's presence as I am aware of sunshine. My inner garden is a place where I can go for rest, away from all the noise. The inner garden is where I can remember the life-memories of great beauty, happiness, confidence, inner strength or resolve. The inner garden is where "Thank you" piles up. I'm wondering, is there some missed moment that I have yet to acknowledge with thank you — the smell of rain, the smell of air before a truck's fumes get at it. There is a plant blooming in my neighborhood in late June that takes me right back to a summer pilgrimage to Lourdes. I have looked high and low for it in front yards and cannot locate it. Perhaps the scent is meant to be elusive — acknowledged gratefully but otherwise unseen.
My inner garden is where I hear morning bird song, the buzz of bees, detect smiles, pause at some delight. It is where I know the pleasure of genuine friends. The inner garden is where decisions are made — not which salad dressing to buy but which life direction to take. The inner garden is a place of waiting and anticipating, as in an outer garden one waits for spring bulbs to appear, lily buds to open, a tomato or melon to ripen. Perhaps I am waiting for strength to be restored, memories or an addiction to be healed, procrastination to be overcome.
We might spend a few moments with this picture of the gate with the wonderfully created cedar-arch — together inviting us to interiority. See what happens.
