The Therapeutic Value Of A Water Garden

?"More than anything, I must have flowers, always, always."

-Monet

What magic draws us to the sounds of water? Is it the rhythm of the rolling surf as it runs onshore from distant horizons or the faint whispers of a rolling brook or the dancing stream as it jogs and falls before you on its journey to the sea from the highest mountain? Perhaps it is because our bodies are made up predominately of water or that three-quarters of the earth is covered by water. We return to our beginnings. ?We are all connected to every living thing. I believe the rhythms of water match the rhythms of our heartbeat. The time we sit by the water garden, we synchronize with the natural order of the universe.?

?Have you noticed that total strangers will converse openly about what they see as unique in the pond? Chances are they would pass each other by on the street in complete silence as if the other never existed. The pond, fish, babbling of the waterfall, and perfume of the beautiful flowers bring out the best in us.?

?The early morning is my favorite time to sit by the pond and reflect on the day's events. I watch the sun's rays dart through the long branches of the black locus trees like a sword, then dance over the water's surface as prisms dance hanging in the kitchen window.?

?The benefits of a water garden are varied: residents are absorbing the healing powers of the sunshine, all their senses stimulated at the pond, and they have opportunities to reminisce and socialize in a non-institutional environment. Stress levels are reduced, blood pressure decreases, and appetites may improve. The sounds of the water, birds, insects, fish, and the trees' whispering as the gentle breeze caresses them to give you an undeniable connection to nature.?

?The pond at our nursing home is eleven by sixteen feet with a six-foot stream and a two-foot-high waterfall. The water depth ranges from eight inches on the first tier to eighteen inches on the second tier, with a maximum depth of three feet in the pond's center. The edge of the pond's border is surrounded by fieldstones, each with its own character and individualized personality, not very different from the faces of the residents who visit the pond daily.?

?The flowers surrounding the pond include a laceleaf Japanese maple, false lupine, buddleia, geraniums, poppies, peony, delphinium, dianthus, tea rose, salvia, and Japanese iris. In the water, we have a variety of hardy water lilies, water hyacinth, and duckweed. Of course, the star attraction of the pond is five Japanese Koki and one very courageous goldfish put in the pond by a resident to save it from the facility cat who had eyes on it for a gourmet meal. Better to swim for it in the big pond than in the belly of a cat. The goldfish has tripled in size since its liberation to the pond. The cat would choke on the goldfish now and have to spit it out or risk getting bludgeoned to death by its tail.?

?The pond is the most used activity of the facility currently. Interestingly, our independent living facility residents have begun to visit the pond and sit with the nursing home residents as admirers of the pond. No other activity I know of could create this unique event. People in the nursing home engage people from the independent living side as neighbors without considering their living arrangements. They are friends at the pond.?

?One of our staff members has taken various pond pictures and placed them on the facility intranet. Everywhere you go, you see a screen-saver picture of the pond. Some residents have suggested blowing up the pond pictures to poster size and hanging them throughout the nursing home. Who would have imagined that a water garden would have such a powerful impact on so many people??

?The next time you visit a water garden as the ripples from the waterfall begins, look deeply into the pool, and you'll see your reflection clearly as incontestable evidence that you are an extraordinary and unique creature of an infinitely expanding universe.

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