153. Backyard Sanctuary

The world has always been a crazy, frightening place with famine, disease, and greed, but our country has had a slightly more charmed existence between the second world war and now. Still, individual families and every American at one point or another suffers from something whether it be physical or social-emotional. The current pandemic has added unbelievable stress to us as Americans and as the human race. If we are wise we learn how to create our own spaces, our own sanctuaries, where we can go to enjoy reprieve from some of those problems. I have piddled around for years making my own little backyard sanctuary.

I am by no means a landscape architect, but I have dabbled in gardening all of my life. I have also experimented with a little mechanicing and carpentry, two other fields far away from my own areas of expertise, when it comes to my own yard. Currently I am even hiring a construction company to build us a garage and patio. When it’s not raining (as it is this morning) I love to sit on the porch in the morning sunshine and drink my coffee. Hummingbirds will come to the flowers I have planted, as will hummingbird moths, dragon flies, butterflies, and honeybees (and the unmentionable mosquitos and wasps!). I have even had bear and moose in my lawn right here in town (though I try not to invite them). It is a space where I can contemplate nature and almost instantly forget the problems I am dealing with. It is a place that can help me forget or it can bolster my creativity or the courage I need to face the problems I am encountering (and I do believe creativity and courage are often synonymous). It is my sanctuary.

All of my favorite artists from Van Gogh, Gustav Caillebotte, Georgia O’Keefe, and Monet seemed to have similar sanctuaries on one scale or another and you can still reflect on their sanctuaries when you view their paintings of flowers, water lilies, and gardens. Mine will appear on Instagram and Twitter in photographs, or in my poetry. I often think my back yard is not anywhere as grandiose as those works of art, then when I visit their spaces I realize that the scope comes across as grand in their work because it was grand in their minds and grand in their renown, not so much in size, but in sanctuary. Sanctuary is what my back yard is.

From a distance the sunflowers look to overwhelm the corn, tomatoes, and squash, yet up close I still have all my vegetables but there are finches eating the sunflower seeds and honeybees in the flower centers yellow with pollen. I too get lost in iris and peonies and out of my roses come photographs and poetry and fresh air. Even now, as my backyard is a construction zone for a garage and patio, the flowers are blooming and there is zucchini and winter squash ripening. I will pick tomatoes and basil this afternoon and bask in the sunshine with a drink, all the while forgetting about my impending retirement and the mixed emotions that brings. I’ll just be able to sit and breathe. The only reason I’m not out there now is because of the morning autumnal chill that reminds me it is now September.

There are many places in America that I love to go to and enjoy the splendors of nature and I’m thankful for them all, but some days I just have to be at home. At home there are thousands of little things that need to be done always, but if I just step outside and sit in a lawn chair, and look at the flowers and breathe, they all melt away for just long enough to bolster me so that the thousands of things I need to do become a little less important and much less burdensome. No matter who you are or where you are such a backyard sanctuary is possible, so find it, breathe and give thanks in your own space.