Spiritual Garden

Louise Kaestner
Dec 29, 2024
3 min read

Spiritual Garden.

Source: The Gnawnster YouTube (2024)

Challenge Finding the Spiritual Garden

Finding the Spiritual Garden on Curtin Campus is much like a spiritual journey. There is no markings on a map, nor is there a direct path. My lecturer told me about the Spiritual Garden in an email after I asked where all the various campus mini-gardens were. Her directions were that it was between Buildings 307 and 308. Indeed, the Spiritual Garden is there. However, my map reading abilities are not always up to scratch. I conducted this interview on the 28th of December. This interview is the 2nd interview with the Spiritual Garden because my phone camera kaputzed it on the first one. Life happens and I survive.

Interview with a Spiritual Garden

Upon entry into the Spiritual Garden I found a delightful bird bath/waterfall tinkling away a greeting. Again, it was another water feature surrounded by a moat. Whether there was a dragon or not within the water feature I will never know. There was no mention of one. What the water feature did say was that students and staff would often come to sit in the area only to plug themselves into their tech. This disappointed the water feature. It told me its purpose was mindfulness. Plugging into technology is not mindfulness. It is a way from escaping and addressing the most vital part of our being, our soul.

The water feature brought my attention back to the moat. There was plenty of land, the water feature pointed out, enough, in fact, to grow some strawberries or root vegetables. The water feature further explained that mindfulness need not be a person sitting in silence, legs crossed and eyes closed. Digging one's hands into the nutrient rich soil to commune with what lay beneath is another form of mindfulness. It is a place where the spiritual and material world can meet, not as a human dominating the Earth, but as a co-creator.

A delightful addition to the Spiritual Garden which I found lacking in the other garden spaces was that of a record 2 bins. It occurred to me that perhaps this is the area where staff and students are taught to respect the planet and once they have consumed to place their rubbish in the receptacles. The bins were also small, wheelie bin types, reminiscent of what you will find in a person's home, rather than the recycle/landfill bins found sprinkled across the campus.

A Second Spiritual Garden

If you walk to the back of the Spiritual Garden after entering it from the direction of the TL Robertson library, there is a hidden path off to the right. You have to be upon it to see it. I find this another marvellous metaphor for the true spiritual journey. Though I did not take out my figurate machete and carve branches from my path, I did have to step over some dead branches. As I strolled upon this dirt path, I found myself on the opposite side of building 307 in an area that also leant itself to thoughtful contemplation.

Leaves cloaked the area, hiding the pavers beneath. I crinkled my feet into them with joy. As the crunching reached my ears, I realised that this area was much less used than the other. In fact, though the energy was silent, the silence spoke volumes. The leaves, falling in such a natural manner, made excellent mulch. Still in the shade, the area had plenty of raised garden beds to grow plants that may be more tender and need extra coverage.

Time kept moving and I had to move with it. I dug my feet into the piles of leaves a final time before taking my leave of the beautiful treasure I found that you won't find on any map. It was on to my next interview.