Simple is as Simple does...in Garden Design and in Life

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.

~ Walt Whitman

Simplicity is a tender heart, a lilting song, a perfect form, a sweeping curve.

Simplicity offers us creative freedom.  It clarifies. As Plato said, "In order to seek one's own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life."

Or as the Shakers sang, "'Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free....."

So incorporate the 7 aspects of the simple life (as I have defined them) to create a more fulfilling life or at least a fantastic serenity garden:

1. Choose Simplicity: choose the simple life deliberately; do not be distracted by consumer culture. Choose freedom. Arrange your life so that you are not too busy, too stressed, and too fragmented. Share your "true gifts" to the world . As Emerson said, "The only true gift is a portion of yourself."

from Christian gifts place

2. Sell Simplicity: serve the growing market for healthy, uplifting and sustainable products and services of all kinds — home-building, energy systems, foods, etc. Retrofit or design homes, cities, workplaces that are in accord with a simple life...sell anything that promotes spiritual development.

3. Operate from Simplicity: stress a kinship with others and develop a reverence for the community of life on Earth. Appreciate your interconnection with the web of life.  Balance your time in human environments with time in nature.

4. Live Simplicity: choose to live in a way that touches the Earth more lightly. Put whole eco-systems and healthy people up front and center.  "Choose to live simply so that others may simply live."

5. Design with Simplicity: Gandhi said, "My life is my message." In this spirit, surround yourself with an aesthetic that draws from Zen to the Shakers, Matisse to Masai. Celebrate natural materials and beautiful design.

6. Save Simplicity: Cut back on things that do not serve you and learn to live with less, however you define this.

7. Cultivate Simplicity: Approach life as a gift and cultivate your connection with all that exists. Look beyond appearances. A spiritual presence will infuse your life and awaken you to a world that sustains you. Savor your life in its unparalled richness.

If you follow these 7 aspects you will enjoy that garden of yours to the max....

remember in times of stress to follow Henry David Thoreau's advice:  "Our life is frittered away by detail... Simplify, simplify."