Garden Journal

As I walked around the garden for the first time, I felt cheated. How could I have missed something so beautiful as this garden during my four years here in Austin? I have never even heard that there was a Japanese garden in Austin until I took this class. It was a beautiful day and a perfect time to visit the garden. I arrived early with no one in sight. I felt like I owned this simple yet elegant and peaceful garden. The rain had stopped but there was drizzle every few minutes. It provided a kind of mist around the garden, which made it look mystical. I wondered if I was in a dream as I hear the water flowing beneath my feet.

The sound of the water everywhere reminded me of the garden in the Alhambra Palace in Spain. I sat on a rock under a big tree looking down on the pond below me.

Here, I felt completely at peace and could feel the "spirit" that Taniguchi had talked about in his poem. I sat here for a few minutes. It's amazing how a ritual as simple as this in this type of surrounding brings to mind many things. I thought about my ancestors and wondered if they had a garden similar to this in China. I looked around me and felt at home. The plants I saw reminded me a great deal of Philippines. These plant were the same plants I used to hide behind from as a child while playing hide and seek. I thought about how my mother would love to see this garden and would probably think of her childhood as well. There are so many things that feel familiar to me in this garden. Some of the familiarities are caused by the plants, but there are other familiarities I can't quite put my finger on. This garden feels like home to me. As I walked on the "Togetsu-kyo" and washed my hands and face under the bamboo pipe, I felt spirits all around me.

I became more aware of the mist as if the spirits have taken over them. The mist seem to caress my face as if it have caressed faces similar to mine before; maybe my ancestors.