Japanese Garden

Portland Japanese Garden

Davis Graveyard, Milwaukie

    Roxie and I usually tromp around Milwaukie on our weekly walks.  At Halloween season in our fair city, the front yards are alive with ghosts and ghouls.  This week, however, we decided to opt for serenity. We walked in the Japanese Garden.

Japanese garden maple

   It was a foggy morning, but the garden is on a hill in Southwest Portland.  We drove up out of the mist into a bright, sunny day.  The light through the leaves of the garden's Japanese maples was stunning.  We walked slowly and stopped often.  Mostly we were quiet.

Koi pond

    When we passed by the koi pond, Roxie admired the strong, shining fish.  My mind, however, was kidnapped by an assignment hanging over my head. I had that feeling of being in high school again, with a paper due and no idea of what to write.

Thoreau

     I've agreed to select some readings and give a very short introductory talk before the minister's sermon at church next Sunday.    She had just e-mailed me the evening before I went to the Japanese Garden.  She'll be speaking about  the impact the Transcendentalists had on the Unitarian tradition.  She suggested that I could find lots of good passages from Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Peabody, Theodore Parker.  As Roxie and I walked around the koi pond, my mind was captured and dragged to Walden Pond.  All I could think was, "I don't 'know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies! I don't know nothin' about Transcendentalism!"
    The feeling of being caught unprepared got even stronger when we went into the Pavilion to view a collection of large ceramic sculptures.  They reminded me of the wimples worn by the Daughters of Charity, my teachers in high school.
    I soon got over my fretting and began to pay attention to  the Japanese garden again.  I always feel peaceful after a visit there.  As Roxie said, "I feel like my soul has been washed clean and hung out to dry."

Simplicity