By Linda Wiggen Kraft
Healthy Planet Green & Growing Editor
Beloved poet Mary Oliver said: “I got saved by the beauty of the world.” Right now, beauty is needed to help heal us from dealing indirectly or directly with the horrors of what is happening in parts of the world and in our own country.
Overload, mostly from the media, bombards us. It brings awareness of what is going on and often inspires us to do what we can to help heal our world. But this overload also often creates anxious static in our minds and bodies. This static can be transformed into a centering cohesion through beauty. The energy of a garden smooths out the static and brings a harmony to mind and body. By letting that beauty of a garden enter into our eyes, bodies and hearts a harmony helps us find our center.
There is order and harmony in the shapes and colors of a garden. This energy of order and harmony can be absorbed by us. Some refer to the shapes of plants as sacred geometry. Sacred because nature shows the holiness of creation in its expression of beauty. Symmetry is a pattern that humans are attracted to and find comfort in. There is symmetry in flowers with petals radiating from a center. Like pollinators, we are drawn to a flower’s center. The patterns of a flower’s centers can be striped, circular and sometimes the patterns of sacred geometry. Purple coneflowers and sunflowers have intertwining spirals that represent the Fibonacci sequence, which is the endless adding of numbers, the first and second are added together and then the second and third added together, and on into infinity. Some refer to this pattern as a symbol of infinity, allowing us to experience it as we gaze at flowers. Other plants grow as fractals shapes. Fractals are infinitely complex, self-similar mathematical patterns that repeat. A fern leaf has smaller and smaller parts (pinnules) that are identical to the largest leafy part of the frond. Several studies showed that when people view fractal patterns found in nature there is a reduction of stress and a calm relaxed state is produced.
Colors in a garden also take us to a place of beauty and sense of awe. Certain colors make our hearts sing. For some a red, red rose may be the strongest pull. For others softer colors appeal. There is color year-round in a garden, from the shouting colors of spring, summer and fall to the quiet softness of winter. Anytime of the year the shapes and colors of a garden can bring beauty. This beauty is here to help us through hard and not so hard times.
Linda Wiggen Kraft is a landscape designer of holistic/organic gardens. She is an artist and creativity workshop leader. Her ceramic jewelry and pottery are available online and at www.gardendistrictstl.com. Find out more, subscribe to her blog and Instagram at www.creativityforthesoul.com Call her at (314) 504-4266.