This time, I have a car, so I plan to visit the long-awaited Shofuso Japanese Garden. Alas, I arrived in Philly too late for Shofuso on Wednesday afternoon. What one loses on the swings, she gets back on the roundabouts. I missed Shofuso, but I encountered the most beautiful garden I have ever seen: Chanticleer.
The gardeners have a clever idea. They collected dropped flowers into a water basin. Being together, these fallen angels gained a second life and became the best offering on the altar, the offering to the Goddess of Nature!
My favorite part of the garden is an area called "Ruins." The incomplete masonry sets a contrast against the beautiful blue sky. The little fountain hosts several pieces of sculptures, sharply impressive.
I walked and walked till the garden was closed, whole-heartedly purified and satisfied. Nature is always my sanctuary, in particular during this time of year when trees, plants, and flowers are coming to life.
Chanticleer is romantic, imaginative, and exciting. The garden is a study of textures and forms, where foliage trumps flowers, the gardeners lead the design, and even the drinking fountains are sculptural.
The gardeners have a clever idea. They collected dropped flowers into a water basin. Being together, these fallen angels gained a second life and became the best offering on the altar, the offering to the Goddess of Nature!
Sit and enjoy the views. Relax, read, converse, meditate. Feel the sun on your back and the grass beneath your feet as you listen to the birds and enjoy the fall's breath.
My favorite part of the garden is an area called "Ruins." The incomplete masonry sets a contrast against the beautiful blue sky. The little fountain hosts several pieces of sculptures, sharply impressive.
I saw more colors and spirits of the fall on the road back to DC. Meanwhile, I finished listening to the audiobook Klingsor's Last Summer, a book by Hermann Hesse, my favorite novelist. Many years ago, I encountered the Museum of Hermann Hesse in Switzerland during another conference (the story is here). Karma brings him to me again; I unexpectedly found this book before starting this road trip. His other books, Siddhartha and the Glass Bead Game, have profoundly affected me in some dark moments of my life. They have guided me on how to face the struggles and to find wholeness and meaning in life. And this book, again, hit my heart unexceptionally.
Klingsor's Last Summer, is somehow autobiographical. It was written in 1919 at the end of World War I. That year, Hesse was 42 years old. His hometown turned into a ruin in the war, and so did his marriage. What he had been proud of and cherished was gone. "If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you" (Nietzsche). He suffered, looking for an answer and an uplift. I don't know how Hesse went through the ordeal. However, without the rotten leaves in the fall, there wouldn't be the beautiful flowers in the spring and the fresh fruits in the summer. Similarly, without the self-analyzing Klingsor's Last Summer (1919), there wouldn't be the more famous books later such as Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), and The Glass Bead Game (1943).
This book comes at such a time. I also experienced difficulties. But all cyclical dark moments in life are temporary. One can still cultivate inner peace, as Hesse told us through Klingsor's words:
There was not a thing in the world that was not just as beautiful, just as desirable, just as joyous as it’s opposite. It was blissful to live, it was blissful to die, as soon as you hung suspended in space. Peace from without did not exist; there was no peace in the graveyard, no peace in God. No magic ever interrupted the eternal chain of births, the endless succession of God’s breaths. But there was another kind of peace, to be found within your own self. It’s name was:
Let yourself fall
Do not fight backDie gladlyLive Gladly!"
Photographed by Jennie Bai.
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