Butchart's Japanese Garden

Tranquillity.  Perfection.  Artistry.  Not easy to achieve in life.  But it exists.  Here.  It helps, of course, to have a staff of gardeners who rake, weed and prune on a daily basis.  Unbelievably, I overheard someone complain about this garden.  "It's too perfect," she said.

Too perfect.  I've been thinking about that comment ever since.  So rare is perfection that it makes us uneasy when we see it.  We begin to question our own messiness, procrastination and unhealthy habits.  No one's perfect.  It's the universal excuse.

I strive for perfection, but have never achieved it.  It is often deliberate.  Or perhaps superstitious.  Leaving projects unfinished and chores undone keeps alive the hope of another more productive day.

This beautiful Japanese Garden was Jennie Butchart's first formal garden, created in 1906.  Isaburo Kishida, a Japanese landscape artist, helped her with the design.  Hugh Lindsay, her first head gardener, supervised workers from the local cement factory in the plantings and construction of paths and bridges.  A red torii gate marks the entrance with Japanese maples on either side--glorious in autumn.

To walk amid perfection is a rare event.  It brought inspiration and joy to my imperfect world.  I'm taking the idea of this garden home with me.  I'm going to cross a bridge into a better tomorrow.