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Whether it’s a tropical setting, an ancient forest or a mountain butte, most of us see nature when we close our eyes and envision paradise.
To a person, paradise is almost always a setting landscaped by man or nature. Few of us imagine a scene barren of plants and call it Nirvana.
“It could be the hunter-gatherer in us, but we seem to be hardwired to admire nature,” said Malcolm Cairns, a long-time professor of landscape architecture at Ball State University. He offered this opinion several years ago during a talk sponsored by the Indianapolis Museum of Art Horticultural Society.
Nature’s power
We stand in awe of nature’s power, from thunderstorms to earthquakes, and we strive to tame what we can for our personal paradise, he said. From Eastern and Western civilization’s earliest drawings, we see that ancient urban planners included enclaves of nature at city centers or at the edges of towns.
At first, the plantings were as much edible as ornamental, providing sustenance for the mind and body. In the Middle Ages, gardens were places of knowledge and medicine.
Cultural traditions
Other cultures created their own traditions. Desert populations placed an oasis with water and gardens at the center of their communities, a practice still in use today. And also still today, the Japanese and many other Eastern gardeners contemplate the meaning of plants, stones and water in their landscapes.
Whether crafted by human or godly hands, artists have sketched and painted nature in all its perfection, creating romantic landscapes and animals where the light is always right. For the less artistic, paradise is a place that calms us, heals us and renews our soul.
Bring nature indoors
We want to be close to nature, bringing indoors as bouquets of cut flowers, pets and a love of wood-burning fireplaces. And we want it in our backyards or on our balcony, where we grow plants that perfume our air, bear fruit, fill our world with color and move with the wind.
It’s all a part of ancient ties that defy understanding. Part of the power of nature is how it pulls us in.
Published Sept. 22, 2001 in The Indianapolis Star © Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
