Where Hope Grows:
Gardening & Life Challenges
Anita Unruh& Susan Hutchinson
School of Health & Human Performance Dalhousie University,
Halifax, NS, Canada, [email protected]
© Leisure/loisir, please do not cite without permission
Landsberg (1996, p. 78-79)
“Fear is so physical: it’s something I hadn’t known
before. It digs its claws into your brain and twist and turn as you may, you can’t shake the agony. Your breath strangles in your throat, your heart races
painfully ... Almost without thinking, I lurched into the garden, and saw the first shoots of spring. I
recognized my old friendly foe, garlic-mustard, its handsome green-red, crinkled leaves already
unfolding. A small army of lily-of-the valley spears were poking up: fern fronds were brown nobs under the dead leaves: the crimson
early shoots of the peonies!
- caught my eye …
My Mind stopped racing: I felt a silvery calm happiness slowly rise in me like a cool
water in a glass. I was in the world of it,
entranced by it, and I had discovered the
saving of my sanity. The garden would get
me through. The garden would bring me
back into the moment and help me to live
with it.”
“.... I recognized that (the deep well spring of solitude offered by work in the garden - her words) as one of the most profound sources of strength for me when I was going through that summer of sickness and
dread. The garden was the only place where I was both unthreatened – indeed, nurtured - and alone.
Everywhere else, in the different rooms of the house, in the chemo waiting room, in the radiation waiting room, I needed to be accompanied (totally unusual for me) in order not to fall prey to fear. Only in the garden could I deal with myself inwardly and not be afraid.”
(Landsberg, July 2, 1997, personal communication)
z Presentation is based on research project examining the meaning of gardens & gardening in daily life
z overarching theme - finding hope through life challenges through the experience of gardening.
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z Gardening pursued as a restorative leisure activity for its emotional, physical, psychological, social, &
spiritual benefits
z Finding a means to be hopeful is deeply rooted in what we sometimes think of as spirituality
What is Spirituality?
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often defined as experiences of transcendence, connectedness, meaning and purpose in life,
integrating aspects of the self or a search for the sacred
Chiu, Emblen, Van Hofwegen, Sawatzky, & Meyerhoff (2004) Tanyi (2002)
Unruh, Versnel & Kerr (2002)
Unruh, Versnel & Kerr, 2002
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an evolving, lifelong process of working out a conceptual framework of purpose and
meaning in life that contributes to one’s sense of identity.
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Introspective process, requiring time for reflection and contemplation.
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May be solitary, may be communal
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frequently triggered or initiated by
significant health or life crises.
z an evolving, lifelong process of working out a
conceptual framework of purpose and meaning in life that contributes to one’s sense of identity.
z Involves an active search for answers to fundamental or ultimate life questions.
z What are our obligations to each other?
z Why do bad things happen?
z How do I experience meaning in my life?
z What really matters to me?
z Is there a life after death?
z Does God exist?
Framework may be:
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atheistic (God does not exist),
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agnostic (God may exist),
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theistic (God exists but framework is not based on a specific doctrine),
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religious (God, or gods exist based on a set doctrine of beliefs)
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or some other framework (humanist,
empiricist, existential, etc.)
Spirituality & Leisure
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Leisure activity affords expected &
unexpected opportunities to think about &
experience spirituality.
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Leisure frequently brings deep enjoyment and opportunity to separate oneself from daily life stresses, becoming reflective
about what really matters.
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Separation from everyday life, and the peace and receptivity possible through leisure enables people to give fuller
attention to celebrating and affirming life.
Spirituality & Leisure (cont’d)
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offers reflective opportunity
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Often neglected esp. in crisis, productivity, self-care given more time & urgency
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restorative, often reflective
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gardening may be particularly conducive to spiritual experience because it involves
interaction and nurturance of living things.
(Heintzman, 2000, 2002; Heintzman & Mannell, 2003; Unruh, Smith & Scammell, 2000; Unruh, 2004; Unruh et al., 2002;
Unruh & Elvin, 2004)
Study
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Qualitative, phenomenological
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Meaning & purpose of gardens and gardening in daily life
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participants interviewed once in each season over a 1 year
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recruited through various community- based methods
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Perceived Restorativeness Scale (Hartig et
al. , 1996, 1997) revised
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42 participants (32 - 80 years) participated
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18 gardeners were living with cancer, 9 had metastatic disease; 3 died either before
completing the study or shortly thereafter
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majority of the non-cancer group of participants were healthy but three
individuals had progressive diseases, 4th
individual was legally blind,5 participants
were grieving or remembering the loss of a
loved one.
Interview Questions
(1) How did your interest in gardening begin?
(2) How important is the garden and gardening in your present daily life?
(3) How does your current health and life experiences affect your interest in gardening?
(4) What qualities of the garden and gardening give you satisfaction at this time of year?
(5) How has the meaningfulness of the garden and gardening changed from one season to another?
(6) In what ways has the garden and gardening contributed to your quality of life over the past year?
Data Analysis
z constant comparative analysis to construct emergent sets of themes from the interview transcript
z preliminary thematic framework was developed by the interviewer (first author) as the interviews progressed, revised in response to new information generated by additional interviews
z research associate with expertise in qualitative data analysis read the first set of interviews, revised the preliminary thematic
framework in discussion with the interviewer
z revised thematic framework further refined by application to a set of interviews selected on the basis of the greater complexity of the data in the interview
z thematic framework was considered complete when no new themes or categories were needed.
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10 random interviews coded by a second analyst using the framework, achieved 70%
agreement
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interviews entered into Ethnograph to label interview segments and sort data
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participants sent a summary of the main themes in their interviews for confirmation
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2 people wrote back to clarify or expand on
their summary.
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Spirituality was 1 of the 12 major themes
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For some, spirituality was explicitly related to sacred or religious beliefs
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For most, gardening was a secular spiritual experience connected with experiences of
connectedness & expression of their inner sense
of being.
Theme 1. Spirituality as connectedness,
Theme 2. Spirituality as an expression of inner being,
Theme 3.The garden as a spiritual place and gardening as spiritual activity, Theme 4. Gardening as a spiritual
journey
Theme 5. Stewardship
Theme 1. Spirituality as Connectedness
1a. connectedness with nature, the life- cycle, and the life force;
1b. connectedness with the future and leaving something behind;
1c. connectedness with significant
others.
Connectedness with nature
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“I think my spirituality or the way I feel about things is really based in … It’s
always been sort of the earth and growing things.” (Jack)
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“I like to just sit here sometimes and just feel connected to it. Because I’ve put the plants there and then they have done
what they want to do too. So it’s like
being part of a whole cycle.” (Sharon)
Connectedness with the life force
“I just happened to notice lately, emotionally, how I was feeling as I looked at things turning yellow with the frost. And I thought about my illness and I thought,
‘Oh, yes, I’m thinking about dying.’ I’m thinking that is going through my mind, and then as I watch this garden die, the two things kind of click together – my body and the garden. Because in reality, the garden is a metaphor for life – the beginning and the ending and the growing period. I don’t think I had thought about that until I got sick.”
Robin (MS)
Connectedness with the future
“I think it (gardening) shows me the fact that there is hope. Because cancer doesn't make sense. You know, cells, body cells just going off on their own and just being parasites on the healthy system. Of course that does happen in nature too. It does
happen in nature ….I think it was so important for me to have an established bed here this year so it looked full. You know, it was mature and it was strong and it can survive.”
Monica (metastatic cancer)
“I guess I thought that gardening would give me more hope, or help me to look forward.
And I guess in a way to this point it hasn't helped, or helped as much as I would like it to. So I'm looking forward to enjoying it
more at some time.”
(Amy, cancer)
Connectedness with others
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Shared plants, plants that are passed down, plants that transfer memories
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Memorial part of gardens
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Plants & gifts
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Shared pleasure in gardening
“I think I'm probably quite a spiritual person. I mean
over my years, I think I have become so. And I accept those who have gone before us are with us. And they are with us when we are in the ground, when we are out there doing something in the ground. Because that is what we are. We are living beings as they are.
And it all sort of meshes together. But we forget that we are just a part of that living thing. You know, we are two separate things. We are living, yes, but they are something else. But they are really not (dead).”
Florence
Theme 2. Gardening as an Expression of Inner Being
“It’s sort of an extension of me, in
putting my mark if you will, here. It’s sort of expressing some of my joy.”
(Lilly)
Connectedness with inner being can also mean significant loss:
Last year I felt very comfortable in my garden. I knew it.
I knew every rock. I knew every plant. I don’t feel that anymore. It was almost like a bond there, and it’s not there any more. ... Where last year, I loved my garden, now I just like it. It’s just another thing that I have.
Where it was really, really special, really up there above everything else that I did.
(Peter, cancer)
Theme 3: The Garden as a Spiritual Place, and Gardening as Spiritual Activity
As a spiritual place
“Well, I guess for me, God and spirituality are pretty much one in the same. Lots of times I think that when I am in my garden, ‘Well,
this is a church – This is as close to God as you can get’”
(Abbie)
As spiritual activity:
“There is certainly something spiritual about gardening but I'm not sure what it is -- if it's the new growth. Maybe it's just the
tranquility of it. Because I can sit in the middle of the woods and feel very close to God. …Because to me, spiritual and God, there is no separation. And yet I am not a terribly religious person.”
(Maggie)
“You are out there and you are working, and you are at peace. … You are
using your body. Your body is at one with the soil, with the earth. It’s like you are... It’s like I’m not a person in the garden. I’m within the garden.”
(Kristine, cancer
)
Theme 4: Gardening as Spiritual Journey
“And yet I wouldn’t think of myself as a particularly
religious person. But as I talk, I am perhaps a bit of a spiritual person. I am not quite sure what the spirit is.
….It is difficult to talk about. Not because one is shy about talking about it but it is difficult to express. I think I used to think about spirituality in terms of a religion. And I pursued that a bit several times
actually, and came away, which it was in fact coming away from religion or church, with a feeling of
emptiness. ..But I still had that feeling of a need for spirituality, and I still have it. But the closest (and I don’t know how close that is) to come to grips with this spirituality has been through doing things like gardening, like sailing …
…You come out of yourself when you are working in the garden, looking at lovely things, looking at things
growing. I think it is the whole business of
embryology - growing plants. And one’s mind wanders. It’s not just about planting a plant. It’s
about how to live and how other people live - how to live better perhaps. And so it’s coming to grips with yourself. And that happens when... It happens when I’m sailing too. … I think for me it has to do with nature, the world around us, our environment, how I fit in as a human being in that.”
(John)
“As all people come down with a chronic illness, you keep saying, “Why me? Like I didn’t do anything to anybody.
Haven’t I tried to help everybody?” You know, you go through that whole thing. Sometimes you even try to
barter with God. “If you give me back my left leg, I’ll go to church every Sunday,” or something. And I had to get out there in the garden and watch things live and watch
things die, and realize that I’m no different than the apple tree or the plants that are coming up.”
(Robin, MS)
“I think I have a pretty strong faith. I mean,
creation just reminds you of God’s creation and the wonderful things that He has done.
I believe that God is the creator, maybe everybody doesn’t but that is what I
believe. And when I look at the intricate designs in a flower or a leaf or the birds and all of these things, how can we not believe that there was a real intelligence behind it? You know, a creator.”
(Laura)
“I do it (gardening) because I love to do it. It complements my life rather than being a necessity in my life. …I guess the only refuge I feel in my life is my belief in God and that everything you do in your life
leads to the end of your life. And, which is actually the beginning, and not the end. I guess that’s the only thing I consider a refuge (her faith).”
(Danielle, cancer)
Theme 5: Stewardship
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Ownership
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Sense of place
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Responsibility
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Obligation to the natural world that is part
of home
“I’m not a very spiritual person. I guess I don’t
spend too much time worrying about my place in this world. I’m not religious. However, I do have a certain sense that whatever you have here, you are supposed to take care of. So I feel that this piece of land is something that one should do something with it, something useful.”
(Brenda)
“When you get into the garden or when you are outside, it is a spiritual experience because you are in God's world.
You are in the very bone of God's world by digging in his ground. I mean you can play in your house and that's one thing, but the ground is pristine. I mean it's God's ground.
... I keep thinking that you are enhancing God's world by working in his garden, whether it's his garden amongst people or his garden amongst his plants. I mean
essentially they are all the same. But you are trying in a very small way because each of us only has a very small spirit, or most of us do. That you are trying to make this world a better place to be in. And by encouraging plants to grow, encouraging people to grow, we are hopefully
making the world a better place.”
(Florence)
Discussion
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search for meaning in and through activity is a fundamental aspect of human experience that promotes adaptation and growth
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Activities or objects can become vehicles to create meaning in
stressful life circumstances
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(Fidler & Velde, 1999)
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Search for meaning, esp. spiritual meaning in whatever way that is
constructed assists with reappraisal of life events
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Meaning-focused coping, Parks &
Folkman (1997)
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Disengagement & receptivity central to
cultivating the spiritual dimensions of gardening as a leisure experience
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engagement in activity may assist with disengagement from ordinary life,
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disengagement through leisure activity offers
more than compensation for stressful living
(Kleiber, 1999)
Re. Gardening, occupation &
spirituality
z Unruh, A.M. (2004) So … what do you do? Occupation as identity.
Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71, 290-295.
z Unruh, A.M. (2004). The meaning of gardens and gardening in daily life: A comparison between gardeners with serious health problems and healthy participants. Acta Horticulturae, 639, 67-73.
z Unruh, A.M., & Elvin, N. (2004). In the eye of the dragon: Women’s experience of breast cancer, and the occupation of dragon boat racing. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy 71, 138-149.
z Unruh, A.M., Smith, N., & Scammell, C. (2000). The occupation of gardening in life-threatening illness: A qualitative pilot study.
Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 67, 70-77.
z Unruh, A.M. (1997). Spirituality and occupation: Garden musings and the Himalayan blue poppy. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 64, 156-160.
Re. Spirituality
z Unruh, A.M., Versnel, J., & Kerr, N. (2002). Spirituality unplugged: A review of contentions and
commonalities, and a resolution. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 69, 5-19.
z Unruh, A.M., Versnel, J., & Kerr, N. (2004). Spirituality in the context of occupation: A theory to practice
application. In M. Molineux (Ed.). Occupation for Occupational Therapists (pp. 32-45). Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
z Unruh, A.M., Versnel, J., & Kerr, N. (2003). Spirituality and evidence-based practice. In M.A. McColl (Ed.).
Spirituality and Occupational Therapy (pp.145-160).
Ottawa: CAOT Press.
Acknowledgement
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Research was funded by the Social Sciences &
Humanities Research Council of Canada
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