Walking with Camellias

When we moved to Georgia over eleven years ago, we were amazed to find winter-blooming flowers that seemed to drop their blossoms in an explosion of decadent color. We called them “splat flowers” because we couldn’t avoid trampling the carpet of newly-dropped blooms each time we went for a winter walk. 

This year, I’ve begun to spend more time in Woodlands Garden, a delightful former estate at the corner of Clairmont and Scott Boulevard, maintained as a public garden by a not-for-profit group of friends and descendants. Featured among the tall shade trees and winding pathways is a section of champion camellias that thrive all year and bloom between November and March. With my wonderful new e-bike, I was able to enjoy a few quiet moments to myself among the camellias on Sunday. I anticipate making this a regular reading spot in the spring. 

As a substitute leader for Mindful Moments and Wednesday Morning Chant at CBH, I recently had the opportunity to introduce a Navajo chant (in English translation) that I learned as a child in New Jersey, probably at Albemarle Music Camp. Woodlands is a perfect place to bring this chant into practice:

“Now I walk in beauty.

Beauty is before me.

Beauty is behind me.

Above and below me.”