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David's Travel Log |
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Thoughts on my Garden
Nov 22nd, 2007
In November 2007 I traveled to Japan and China with friends, including David Pfeiffer, Seattle landscape architect. We went in search of inspiration for my 17-acre garden on Vashon Island. I loved walking the gardens together. As we strolled on the grounds of the Imperial Villa Katsura in Kyoto I sensed the possibility of creating an exquisite garden at my home on Vashon Island, something beautiful, shaped by dreams and inspired by masters from the past.
From an early age my interest in Japanese and Chinese gardens has been intertwined with their spiritual roots. I remember reading the Tao Te Ching in high school and thinking – well I’m happy for you Lao-tsu, but what about me? What about all of us in today’s world? How can we find a path into the timeless and eternal? This question continues to reverberate through my life, and now, at age 55, I have the opportunity to weave together, into the tapestry of this garden, all that I’ve discovered over the years.
I’m learning to see gardens as networks of relationships. And for me, the garden is a container for my life as well as an offering to the world, an embrace as well as a retreat. As I now recall strolling in the gardens at Katsura my body truly lights up! Katsura, and the rock and raked gravel garden at Ryoanji temple, must each have been revolutionary in its day. Certainly they both still seem so! They feel rooted in something deep and fundamental, a timeless quality, masterpieces that have aged well over centuries. We all came alive at Katsura. It had a quality of hyper-realism and the stones appeared almost supernatural; they had the curious ability to wake us up. It was a joy to see the placement of the stones, to notice the composition in the various walkways.
No doubt a primary element in the garden will be the stones and the story of their journey from China. I love that rocks make my heart sing; they are the stuff of my soul. Not just any rocks, of course, but the stones I’ve been collecting these past few years in China. I love seeing how they change in the light and how the colors come more deeply alive with the rain. This last trip in Java my friend Yusman and I traveled to Bogor in west Java and I bought a single stone, a 2-ton convoluted river rock from Sumatra that when wet turns the most marvelous shades of variegated greens. I also love the surface of old granite pavers and planks, and the way both the Chinese and the Japanese use small broken stones or pebbles to pave the surfaces of paths. I love the small natural stepping stones I bought from the stone dealers by the river in Xiamen, reminding me of the stones at Katsura which were like jewels strung along a necklace.
With this trip I feel that I’ve come full circle. Twenty years ago, when I first traveled to Japan, it was a dream come true just to walk through the gardens.
I never imagined that I too would be blessed with the opportunity to create such a garden for myself. For this I give my deepest thanks to all those who have supported and inspired me for all these many years.
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