Ode to the Arboretum

When the writ­ing is going badly…and some­times when it is going well…I pack up note­books and pens and print­ed drafts and head to the Min­neso­ta Land­scape Arbore­tum. It’s a bit of a dri­ve from my house and so I always feel like I should spend hours and hours there once I arrive. This is not hard to do.

I usu­al­ly begin with a walk around 3‑mile dri­ve. Then I go to the car and get my things and find a qui­et place. I work awhile. Then I wan­der the gardens…maybe stop in the library…then work again. At some point I have lunch and anoth­er prop­er walk, and maybe a vis­it to the gift store before I set­tle down and try to accom­plish one more lit­tle bit. Cer­tain­ly there’s anoth­er walk before I head home.

It nev­er fails me, the arbore­tum. It is always worth the trip. Year round I get “unstuck” there—by get­ting out of my own way, usu­al­ly. Today I fig­ured out a lit­tle plot hic­cup and dis­cov­ered a won­der­ful bit of research that focus­es things nice­ly. I think it’s the com­bi­na­tion of walk­ing and work­ing. This morn­ing, a fam­i­ly of geese slowed me down—the lit­tle ones climb­ing out of the pond, the par­ents hiss­ing at me until they’d all been gath­ered. I had to stand and wait. Then walk at a dis­tance behind them for awhile. In the process, the plot hic­cup worked its way out.

I spent a lot of time (A LOT of time) at the Arbore­tum when my kids were lit­tle. We have many mem­o­ries scat­tered through the gar­dens there. Pic­nic places under favorite trees, in trea­sured places, on cer­tain bench­es. Books we read entire­ly in the gar­dens, pick­ing up and walk­ing to anoth­er spot of beau­ty when­ev­er we need­ed to get wig­gles out between chap­ters. We packed sand­wich­es and snacks and lemon­ade and hot choco­late (depend­ing on the sea­son), and always, always books in our back­packs. (I do the same now.) We have loved the sum­mer art exhibits mixed in and around the flow­ers and herbs, research plots, and gath­er­ing spots. This year, there’s an origa­mi theme. I can’t wait to take my big kids, when their sched­ules release us to sum­mer. It looks like they’ve fresh­ened the maze garden—the shrub­beries look right prop­er. (I’ve got a maze gar­den in the WIP. This was my excuse for going to the arb this morning—RESEARCH.)

I am grate­ful for the beau­ty cul­ti­vat­ed and tend­ed in this place—staff and vol­un­teers work con­stant­ly to keep things so love­ly. I’m grate­ful for the paths invit­ing me to walk and walk and the bench­es invit­ing me to sit and rest and read. I’m grate­ful for the sea­sons and all of their glo­ry. The peonies are just begin­ning to open—the ros­es, too. It’s going to be a gor­geous summer.

[Read­more­from­Me­lanieHeuis­er­Hill]

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