Steps Towards Healing :The Garden Oasis Down the Street

By Joan Vorderbruggen, AIAAssistant Professor of ArchitectureNorth Dakota State University

With personal interviews and journal entriesby Lisa Overby-Blosser

EDRA44 Providence Nature and Ecology, Session 1 5/30/13

“One hundred and seventy-one steps; the distance from my house to yours.”

Lisa Overby-Blosser, personal interviews and journal entries, Summer 2012

“Originally I came to the garden because I lacked an environment to be genuine with accepting the illness: for example, not wanting to upset my children or bring more pain upon my husband. The garden accepts sadness, anger, frustration, and gives one a space to distance themselves from their regular duties.” Lisa Overby-Blosser

PROSPECT “In the garden you have control – of where you sit, where you look, what you choose to focus on – whether it’s a wide view or something really small – like the trickle of the water in the pond. There are so many choices available to you. (In the hospital you are castrated from the choices you can make!) The fact that you can make a choice of something can be healing.” Lisa Overby-Blosser

REFUGE

“The garden is always welcoming; no plants fall over or trees drop their leaves in disgust or empathy when I took my hat off exposing my baldness . . . .

The garden accepts where your body and emotions are at that moment in time. Sitting in the garden, too tired to even hold my legs together, I let them flop to each side of the chair… I don’t have to waste energy sitting pretty.” Lisa Overby-Blosser

REFUGE “You are constantly reminded of hope and healing, instead of cold floors. Here you feel clothed; it’s the comfort from the warmth of the sun on your skin. The hospital is cold. You feel naked – there’s an intrusive feeling – because you’re always exposed for every kind of test, unsure of what is next. The garden sheds the warmth of comfort, and security so desperately needed. ” Lisa Overby-Blosser

WATER “The pond’s waterfall is a lullaby to my ears…. One day I noticed that there were ripples in the pond. In the garden, there is change. Sometimes when you’re ill, you don’t see changes fast enough. ” Lisa Overby-Blosser

BIODIVERSITY “[The garden was] an abundant feast to my eyes, to which I could never take all of it in within a visit. ” Lisa Overby-Blosser

BIODIVERSITY

“The feeling of the wind and warmth of summer brought me back to the basics of staying in my skin – of keeping me from disassociating myself from my body (as one can during medical treatment).”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

SENSORY VARIABILITY

“When barefoot you feel the different textures. You feel connected to the earth… [you] touch the round, warm pebbles that remind you that there is more than pain. You are reminded that your body can still accept comfort and warmth.”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

BIOMIMICRY “You took time to plan it all, but to the observer, it looks natural. The garden didn’t have to be perfect in the sense that it appears artificial. It’s all real.” Lisa Overby-Blosser

BIOMIMICRY

“The five steps on the green grass carpet lead my eyes to look forward – the four grey granite flat stones are next, not in a line or arrow, but randomly placed to show the way.

The granite stones are the first of many gentle angles within the garden that soften the harsh, sharp, linear world I am leaving – hospital corridors, hospital rooms,… IV’s, chemo, blood draws….”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

“It is challenging to access my thinking brain in the hospital, my ears are filled with distractions, the beeps, alarms, nurse call lights…the artificial sounds of equipment, doors opening and closing. I feel as though these sounds are intrusions in my own thoughts. Within this monochromatic colored room, its absence of warmth iterates how lonely cancer can be.

Its hard, linear lines form a barren vision, my eyes have nowhere to rest, nothing to alleviate the pain within, nowhere to seek the peace and hope I so desperately need…Here in the infusion center my room confines me with all that is artificial. I am surrounded by plastics…The room’s color palate of white, cream and beige continue the institutional, sterile atmosphere. It becomes a hollow place to me – without movement. I am all that is natural there.”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

PLAYFULNESS“I was attracted to the birds in the pond – their hysterical antics while taking a bath would bring laughter, even when I was in a lot of pain. The bird’s bath dance always uplifts me to a smile, giggle and laugher…I am reminded that I can laugh – things can still be funny. The bird dances fill my heart with humor, freedom, and playfulness, as I am a part of this moment.”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

photo credit:nesttbirds1.com

PLAYFULNESS “When your illness restricts your movement, the garden surrounds you with movement, and allows you to dance in it (referring to watching the tall grasses blow in the wind). There’s no need to move.” Lisa Overby-Blosser

photo credit:Jim Brandenburg

ENTICEMENT

“The different paths allow your mind to wander in different ways.

Paths always symbolize a journey, and that’s en-couraging. Even just seeing the paths would help – I’d walk them with my eyes, too tired to venture on foot.”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

“By taking the time to sit, it gave me the energy to go back home and to be a mom and a wife.” Lisa Overby-Blosser

LIFE’S CYCLES

“Each visit and encounter is distinctly different, in all the times I have sought the shelter of the garden, the experience is never duplicated.

In the garden I come to see life, growth, and predictable gentle deaths. In its fullness the garden is a happy place.”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

THE PILGRIMAGE

“The walk here was always emotionally very dark; it was filled with thoughts of medical treatments, or how the kids were going to react. How much should I tell the kids?

Then I’d get to the garden and start to feel better. The walk home was always better – even my posture was different. I lifted my eyes from the sidewalk, returning with expanded vision.”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

CONCLUSION

“The garden allows your senses to come alive. You want to hear and you want to see and you want to smell. It’s a place where you want to be alive, whereas when in treatment in the hospital, you just want your senses to shut down.”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

“The garden allows you to take deeper breaths – to breath. Maybe just getting rid of stress helped heal [myself of] the cancer.”

Lisa Overby-Blosser

photo credit:Jim Brandenburg

photo credit:Jim Brandenburg

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