{"id":4112,"date":"2012-08-23T12:38:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T16:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=4112"},"modified":"2012-08-23T12:38:37","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T16:38:37","slug":"a-garden-a-scholar-a-couple-of-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/08\/a-garden-a-scholar-a-couple-of-hours.html","title":{"rendered":"a garden, a scholar, a couple of hours ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Something there is about a garden… Particularly a Chinese garden. With a Chinese scholar’s room overlooking the quiet courtyard, a row of clean brushes awaiting the writer’s hand. Each turn is another perfect vista, an image to be sketched, framed with words and translated to a blank page. In Portland, the Lan Su Chinese Garden<\/a> hides in the city’s busy downtown area like a geo-cached treasure.<\/p>\n

Its high walls surround an island of carefully pruned trees, moving water, and the song of happy birds. In the teahouse, you can order Snow Dragon tea, served in a lidded gaiwan<\/em><\/a>. You can buy a small plate of candied mango slices, and sit in a carved chair, feeling the stress & pressure of ordinary American life fall like petals to the raked gravel beneath the open windows.<\/p>\n

As Richard Louv<\/a> argues so convincingly, our brains are hardwired for the greens & blues of outside spaces, the places of growth we build around ourselves. Humans need trees. We need the music of moving water, the whisper of leaves, the tissued fragility of a white blossom on a stone path. And at the end of the path, an open pavilion, where a black desk sits in silhouette.<\/p>\n

As a child, the scholar’s desks at the VAA library fascinated me. And perhaps — as many things from childhood — I remember them in spite of their possible non-existence :). Memory is a trickster — not always loyal to reality.<\/p>\n

Still, what I remember is space for thought. A desk w\/ only writing implements, laid out in an aesthetic order that invited even a young girl to write. Brushes hanging from a stand, an ink stone awaiting water. My own desk is nothing like this, \"\"<\/a>of course. There’s a screen — ubiquitous writer’s tool; a keyboard, a glass of tea, a pen holder, too many small pieces of paper needing attention. The Zen-like calm space of the Chinese scholar’s desk…? Not so much. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

But in a Chinese garden, where the rocks create miniature windows into another world, and even the birds seem to sing more lyrically, everything seems slower. More possible. And I find myself remembering what ‘this moment’ is all about.<\/p>\n

I’m not good at just being. Are you? Does anyone have a secret they’d like to share, beyond the hard time of sitting and following the breath, or moving one foot beyond another, w\/ attention fixed to the quiet swoosh<\/em> of air & movement? Perhaps that’s the allure, for me, of a scholar’s garden: the idea that once there was time enough and space enough and that beauty was the thread connecting it all.<\/p>\n

Inspired by my respite, I’m trying to simplify my desk. I figure: start there. One small victory, right? Then who knows? I may even create my own garden haven…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something there is about a garden… Particularly a Chinese garden. With a Chinese scholar’s room overlooking the quiet courtyard, a row of clean brushes awaiting the writer’s hand. Each turn is another perfect vista, an image to be sketched, framed with words and translated to a blank page. In Portland, the Lan Su Chinese Garden…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[376,354,141],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,379,382,377,383,1182],"class_list":["post-4112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening","category-oregon","category-portland","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-chinese-gardens","tag-chinese-scholars-desk","tag-lan-su-chinese-garden","tag-richard-louv","tag-tea"],"yoast_head":"\na garden, a scholar, a couple of hours ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Something there is about a garden... Particularly a Chinese garden. 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