After a hot but rewarding morning tending the Orchard Garden, we spent the afternoon touring the Nitobe Japanese Garden at UBC. As we walked along the pebbled paths, each leading us in a different direction and representing a different path of life, we were shown various symbols of time, direction, youth, marriage, the integration of Eastern and Western cultures, connections to mother, father, family, and community. As soon as you enter its gates, you are overwhelmed with tranquility, calm, and beauty. After a morning of sweat, wheelbarrows, and communal exertion, the time spent in the garden brought us back to a place of peace and solitude. Every hour spent outside in nature, in a garden of various kinds, I realize it is where we are meant to be, where I am meant to be. Being together with these wonderful teacher candidates who I feel share the same emotional connection to the land on which we live and work is such an experience. If the Nitobe Garden is any indication of where we have come from and let us experience the present today, it feels like we are following the right path for us at this moment.
- Kathleen S.
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