Photo: Cover of Natural Emergence: Gardening an awakening: Unearthing our true nature as nature
Natural Emergence: Gardening an awakening: Unearthing our true nature as nature
By Alison Ensor
If you are a gardener, do you ever find the garden becoming a battlefield? From a distance, a gardener is an epitome of serenity, but the actual experience can be that of a constant tussle with pests, weed and weather. Planting, sowing and nurturing are outweighed by uprooting, pruning, burning and shredding. How does this sit with our peace testimony?
Ensor’s book is a profound answer to this question. She is not a Quaker, but I found much that resonated with my own experience. She begins by examining how gardening is one of the aspects of human life that is coloured by a deeply-rooted conflict-based belief system: ‘a good life as [is seen as] being rooted in work, battle and winning over the competition, rather than finding consensus and operating in cooperation for the benefit of the whole system. We are born into the general assumption that life should be a battle.’
This chimed strongly with my experience! There’s such a narrative about control, imposition of order, and conforming to social expectations tied up in the world of horticulture. Such attitudes are gradually changing, but we still experience that sense of failure and rage that Ensor describes when losing a whole crop overnight to a ‘pest’ or seeing healthy plants chewed to lace. I won’t spoil one of the gems of the book by revealing her ‘Slug Snail Eureka moment’, but it marks a breakthrough. For me it encapsulates the value of this work: Ensor had an emotional, spiritual experience, which was supported by research into finding a better scientific understanding of slug life. She goes on to look in detail at many of the ‘bugbears’ for any grower: bindweed, rats, voles, ground elder and many more.
‘Ensor had an emotional, spiritual experience.’
A solid base of knowledge, practical experience and scientific curiosity is accompanied by a reflective spiritual process. It’s unusual to see them linked so effectively. Ensor has been a permaculture practitioner and teacher for many years, but her inner work takes her beyond just a way of doing horticulture. ‘A new sensation of pure physical bliss was showing up, often outside of any meditation practice…Moments of what I can only describe as deep knowing began to flow when I remained curious.’ Such spiritual experiences are part of universal humanity, so it is no surprise to find them here, the fruits of a personal spiritual discipline. Practitioners of the Experiment with Light will especially recognise Ensor’s descriptions of how she works towards deeper understanding: ‘If reactive thought patterns are observed and actually listened to and not just ignored, the uncomfortable disturbance can be a doorway to profound personal understanding and self-wisdom.’ This to me, echoes Fox’s advice: ‘After thou seest thy thoughts, and the temptations, do not think, but submit; and then power comes. Stand still in that which shows and discovers; and there doth strength immediately come.’
This is a book for any Quakerly-minded grower, botanist or naturalist, and it ends on a strong note of hope for ourselves and the loving earth we belong to.
