The Healing Garden: A Place Of Peace

Gardening For The Soil Gardening For The Soul

Finding Solace In A Changing World

ISBN 0-9733085-0-8

By Gwen Nyhus Stewart

Introduction

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What happens to joy in our lives? As young children, we laugh, cry, and experience life to the fullest. Somewhere along the way, something changes. Life becomes more complex. We learn that ‘in the real world’ we have to be serious, work at jobs we are not fulfilled by, and stay in relationships that are toxic for us. We become concerned, focused on amassing material possessions in an attempt to fill the ‘hole in our soul.’

We work only to keep up with the debt-load generated by need and desire. We search for that formula to heal the ‘hole in our soul’ and for a while the new whatever (car, house, clothes, etc.) glosses over the feeling of despair. Then life presents us with challenges and we question whether ‘that is all there is?’ We learn that the answers were never out there, rather the answers lie within us, and to discover the seeds of our own healing requires the healing power of inner gardening or ‘gardening for the soul.’

For the past 30 years, my primary work has been as a social worker, educator, seminar leader, and more recently as a master gardener and horticultural therapist. One of the themes raised by my students and clients has been related to practical methods of instituting change in their lives. Even though they have read or are aware that something needs to change, the tools are generally not available without a great deal of searching and countless hours of time. This book is a response to those questions and intended as a guide to healing and peace. It is comprised of the techniques and resources that I have explored and developed through the years and which my students and clients have found to be healing in interpersonal relationships.

The garden as a metaphor for creating a place of sanctuary and healing has been utilised for centuries. I use it in the context of a place within, where one can create inner healing and peace, and a place outside of ourselves, which will contribute healing and peace to our environment.

This is the beginning of the Introduction to the book The Healing Garden: A Place Of Peace by Gwen Nyhus Stewart. There's lots more information online, but if you've read this much, you'll undoubtedly find the book of great value!