Sacred Soil: A Gardener's Book of Reflection

Gardening is an instrument of grace.

-May Sarton

In these fifteen intimate essays, Melina Rudman explores the pain of loss and the joy of connection, all within the context of her garden. She writes of gardening as a spiritual practice, one that has the power to ground us in the seasons and cycles of Nature. Gardening, she says, plants us firmly in the circle of birth, life, and death, "smack dab in the middle of life's gore and glory." While gardening focuses on the world of touch and sight and scent, it also opens doors to deeper realities. It teaches us resilience; it shows us how to let go; it comforts our aching hearts; it leads us to repentance-and it offers us a conduit to the Divine.

Spirit, I give thanks

that I am held in a great web of Being,

where the energy of earth and memory,

tree and thought, flower and emotion,

are all knit together into You.