It is stuffy outside and there are many distractions around me. I can hear the yelling of soccer players and the chattering of people all around me. I am trying to concentrate amidst these distractions. I am striving to reach the goal of the oriental idea of achieving concentration among distractions. I already am finding that some moments are easier than others in achieving concentration. I breath in and the sweet smell of flowers growing from trees enters my body. The perfume of these flowers creates invites you to see what is beyond. All though I am invited by the trail of sweet flowers, I feel the need to stop and capture this feeling which overwhelms my body as I pass these sweet flowering trees. Everything vanishes from my mind except for the feeling I that came along with the perfume of spring. The leaves waver and the stuffiness from earlier disappears as a slight breeze refreshes s all that is surrounded by it. Then a distraction, a women begins to complain very loudly about a shoe that’s strap has broken. I’m almost angry at her. She has distracted my concentration. I wanted to tell her to shut up and look around at all the beauty. There is to much beauty among these gardens to complain. I don’t mind so much the positive distractions such as a young girl showing her grandmother a fish and enjoying herself. I decide I must move to a new spot. I travel to the Mother Tree. I sit down in front of her resting near the pagoda that was built in her honor. I read the story of her life as I sat among her roots. It is mesmerizing to think this tree is the reason Taniguchi kept working to complete the gardens. The peace he was striving for has been captured in every tree, blade of grass, flower, drip of water, and much more that surround each of us as we spend our time among the gardens. When looking at Mother Tree it is possible to see the emptiness of her inner trunk. All that is left to see of her is the remains of her body. But it only takes glance to look past her decaying body to see the spirit of Mother Tree. It engulfs everything and everyone at the gardens.