Reflections of Life

Life is made of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement.
-Anna Quindlen

Motherhood at 39 had forced Akaina to park her architectural career, on the back burner of her life. But the architect in her kept yearning to seek joy, through a new channel of creativity. It was her quest for joy that led her to the discovery of her lust for gardening.
Women are very fortunate, thought Akaina. God had bestowed upon them the responsibility of procreation. Men have to work and provide. But women can work, provide and also procreate and hence take the time to stretch the horizons of their life by exploring into the unexamined parts of their mind.
She lived on a gorgeous estate of four acres in Bedford, New York. Her home was built in the middle of this estate and hence it was surrounded on all sides by lush green lawns. In her pregnancy, Akaina has personally planned and planted the flowerbeds. The flowers were chosen so that there would always be something in bloom from March to October. There were Crocuses for late March, Hyacinths and Forsythias for April, Dutch Tulips for early May, Azaleas and Peonies for late May, climbing Roses for June, Hydrangeas for July and August and finally giant Sunflowers for late August to September. As for October, she relied on the magic of fall colors provided by the forest of Maple, Honey Locust and Poplar trees, bordering her backyard.
Once her baby was born and motherhood became a 24/7 responsibility, the only cure for her physical fatigue was to derive joy by watching the flowerbeds unfurl their beauty through the sheer force of Mother Nature’s auto-pilot. As time passed and her baby started walking, Akaina devoted more and more of her leisure time to the joy of ‘hands-on’ gardening. She planted a kitchen garden with corn, green chillies, tomatoes, cilantro and sweet peas. It was her way of sharing the wonder of life with her child.
It was in this blissful serenity of nature that her mind wondered how similar Architecture and Gardening are. They both nourished her. The former nourished her intellect and the latter nourished her soul and body. Both harbored growth as their prime goal. In one she watched buildings grow and in the other it was plants. Both offered a delightful sense of accomplishment, but of course at a different time scale.
Both dealt with the concept of layers. As an architect, she used to create construction documents using CAD software. CAD was a computerized drafting tool which organized all the data into layers. There would be an intricate hierarchy of layers within which there would be sub-layers. For example there would be arch. layers for architectural data, elec. layers for electrical data, pl. layers for plumbing data etc. In fact creating a well-organized layering system enhanced the fun of creating a drawing on the computer. Gardening offered layers too. They were sub-soil, top-soil, mulch and fertilizer! How beautifully simple it was compared to the complex beauty of the CAD system. One was hi-tech and the other was no-tech! Less is more . Less complexity implied more beauty.
Both offered travel opportunities. In one it was to job sites, to clients and to attend conferences and seminars. In the other it was to Home Depot , local nurseries and web-sites of out of state nurseries, for exotic plants.
But it was the differences between Architecture and Gardening that made her laugh. The former was about creating order in the environment whereas the latter was about dealing with chaos! One had her time highly structured with every minute accountable whereas in the other the structure was dictated by nature. Mother Nature was its ultimate ruler. Gardening offered a wonderful sense of timelessness which made everything redundant, removing all the hurries and worries of the material world. It was like natural therapy, far away from the hum-drum of society. Then there was the issue of dress code. As an architect it was always formal except on dress-down Fridays, that too if she didn’t have to meet a client on that day. As a gardener it was always dress-down. She could be in gloved, muddied hands and boots and would not give a damn if anyone noticed her like this, for she was in full tune with nature. Then there was the issue of the brain itself. As an architect it was highly wired, thinking, analyzing, calculating and constantly ticking towards a deadline, but as a gardener it was slowly unwinding, relaxing and cherishing the delectable de-stressing!
Last but not the least was the role of hands. As an architect the nails were always manicured. She used her hands for drawing with CAD software, using all kinds of hi-tech gizmos and for hand waving during project presentations. But while gardening it was like going back to the era of Adam and Eve! She used them for planting saplings and seeds, spreading mulch, removing weeds, watering plants with a hose, plucking flowers and vegetables, removing wilted flowers and rotten vegetables, pruning and doing just about anything that needed her attention. By touching the silky leaves and fragrant flowers with her bare hands she could feel the life force of nature spill into her veins. They seemed to induce currents of love and energy in her physically tired body. It was almost charmingly therapeutic!