I started out to write about the end of my pond and I got caught up in the beauty of Havasu Falls that my web browser app opens up with sometimes.

These falls immediately soothe me, inspire me and make me think about life… I think about the rock, so distinctive, like the values that we build our lives upon, the water like the beliefs that either healthy or toxic nonetheless run our day to day lives, the plants like goals and feeling that grow from our beliefs and the air like our thoughts that waft here and there, emotions like storms or sunshine painting everything with different palettes of color.

A few months ago during the pandemic I took a Blue Zone Life Purpose Workshop and I came up with something that was very unclear,

“To change physical spaces ext to alter mental spaces towards lokahi/harmony for the benefit of people who feel stuck in a mental loop of stress and negativity.“

I didn’t really like the way it is phrased, but I still feel the concept is more or less right for me.

There were some calling cards used to help discover purpose, mine were:

X 24 Composing Things Artistic
X 27 Writing Things Artistic
X 47 Growing Things Realistic
X 48 Shaping Environments Realistic
X 52 Building Things Realistic

I enjoyed the workshop, but left it feeling unclear still, a few weeks ago I found a beautiful article about Japanese Dry Rock stacking or Ano Zumi, and the beauty of this place really stayed with me:

Going back to the falls in Arizona, a flood ruined what was natural about them, and they had to be “recreated” with man made techniques, so what looks to be natural isn’t 100% natural. It’s nature inspired, but there is an interplay between humans “making natural things” for we are a part of nature too… though a natural style and an urban or modern style are different, we can’t be 100% divorced from nature.

I’m having trouble updating this post, probably something to do with the data size from the pictures vs my free word press host, so I’ll wrap it up, I like the pond in the end, I think it showcases nature even though it isn’t natural. I’ve seen it draw my kids into playing with “nature” that makes me happy. Seeing the way they interact with it, it did meet my objectives for it. I wanted it to be something different people, with different tastes could enjoy. There are strawberries that will grow down from “the mountain” that supports the waterfall spillway box, there is ample room for many yamadori bonsai to grow on the lava rock as a planters, there is some formality of Modo Grass, but plenty of hybrid features such as the avocado. There is so much of the landscaping “undone” yet the plumbing/electrical/water features are “done” so I feel okay being done with the “Of Mice and Men Garden Pond 1.0”, it led me to want to grow many more bonsai, which I have failed at many times in the past.

Thinking about this garden, a failed moss garden led me to a grass lawn, led me to this border pond, I’m sure this border pond will lead to more rock staking and a larger koi pond further back, but it led me directly to retry bonsai growing and watermelon growing both… so it’s a really twisted road with blurred lines between gardening, farming, bonsai, landscaping, and rock staking, but I guess that’s my path in life, a windy one.

It takes a long time as a child to get away from who you are, and a long time as an adult to get back there, but maybe the journey is needed instead of wasted because maybe we need the tools and strength we gain along the way?

🎋