At age four, I found a garden, living underneath the kitchen floor. It was hiding behind leftover patches of linoleum on the worn-out floor my mother was having removed. The workman was busy when the garden caught my attention. My eyes became glued to the patterns of embroidered roses blooming across my childhood landscape. I saw them and felt a sense of joy and adventure. This excitement felt like a feeling to go forward into something I knew nothing about. My passion and connection to garden started at that exact moment.
我四歲的時候找到一個花園, 它就位在廚房地板的下方。 它藏在補補貼貼的油地氈底下, 我母親正雇人換掉那已壞的地板。 工人正忙的時候, 我注意到這個花園。 我的視線離不開那刺繡玫瑰圖案, 綻放在我童年的風景中。 我看見它們,感受到喜悅和冒險感。 這種興奮的感覺就像 是要前去探索我未知的事物。 我對花園的熱忱和連結始於那一刻。
When spring arrived, I ran so fast through the house, speeding ahead of my mother's voice. I pulled on my red corduroy jumper and my grey plaid wool hat before my mother could get her jacket on. I catapulted out of the front screen door and threw myself on a fresh carpet of grass. Excited, I bounced to my feet and flipped three more cartwheels before landing by her side. Mother dear was in the garden busy breaking up the soil, and I sat beside her, playing with mud pies in the flower bed. When her work was done, she rewarded me with an ice-cold glass of bittersweet lemonade and then lined my shoes with sprigs of mint to cool off my feet.
春天到來時,我快跑穿過房子, 跑得比我母親的聲音更快。 我穿上紅色的燈芯絨褲工作服, 戴上灰色的彩格羊毛帽, 我母親還來不及穿上她的外套。 我衝出前方的紗門, 跳到新鮮的青草地毯上。 我好興奮,蹦蹦跳跳, 又橫翻了三個筋斗, 才落到她身邊。 母親在花園裡, 忙著翻土, 我坐在她身邊, 在花圃裡玩著泥巴派。 當她的工作完成時, 她給一杯又苦又甜的 冰涼檸檬汁當獎賞, 接著在我鞋裡鋪上小枝薄荷, 讓我的腳更涼快。
My mother cooked with the colors and textures of her garden. She baked yams and squash and heirloom tomatoes and carrots. She fed love to a generation of people with purple hull peas and greens. It seems that during my childhood, the blooms from my mother's gardens have healed all the way from her halo to the roots on the soles of our feet. In our last conversation before her death, she encouraged me to go anywhere in the world that would make me happy.
我母親用她花園中的 顏色和紋理來做菜。 她烘烤山芋和節瓜, 還有祖傳的蕃茄和蘿蔔。 她用紫色豌豆和綠色蔬菜 將愛餵給一整個世代的人。 似乎在我的童年裡, 母親花園花朵的治癒力量, 從她的光暈一路延伸到 我們的腳後根。 於她過世前我們最後的對談, 她鼓勵我去世界上任何一個 會讓我感到快樂的地方。
Since then, I have planted her gardens through art installations throughout the world, in countries of the people that I meet. Now they are lining parks and courtyards, painted on walls and even in blighted lots off the street. If you were in Berlin, Germany, you would have seen my garden at Stilwerk Design Center, where rosemary and lavender, hydrangea and lemon balm trailed up the glass elevators to all six floors. In 2009, I planted "Philosophers Garden," a garden mural, blooming at the historic Frederick Douglass High School in Memphis, Tennessee. This school’s garden fed an entire community and was honored by Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Again, in 2011, I planted at Court Square Park -- six entry gardens with 80 varieties of deliciously fragrant floribunda and hybrid tea roses.
在那之後,我就一直透過藝術裝置 在世界各地種植她的花園, 在我遇到之人的國家中。 現在,它們出現在公園和庭院裡, 畫在牆上,甚至在街旁的破爛地段。 如果你去過德國柏林, 你可能在史迪維克設計中心 看過我的花園, 那裡的迷迭香、薰衣草、 繡球花和檸檬香脂 沿著玻璃電梯直到六層樓高。 我於 2009 年種下《哲學家花園》, 一幅花園壁畫, 在歷史悠久的道格拉斯高中盛開, 位於田納西州的曼非斯市。 這所學校的花園 為整個社區提供食物, 並在大蕭條時期受到 羅斯福總統夫人的推崇。 再次,於 2011 年, 我在法院廣場公園種植, 那花園有六個入口 和八十種美味的芳香花卉, 和雜交茶玫瑰。
Gardening has taught me that planting and growing a garden is the same process as creating our lives. This process of creation begins in the spring, when you break up the soil and start anew. Then it's time to clear out the dead leaves, debris and roots of the winter. The gardener must then make sure that a good disposition and the proper nutrients are correctly mixed in the soil. Then it's important to aerate the topsoil and leave it loosely packed on the surface. You won't get those beautiful blooms in life until you first do the work just right. When our gardens are balanced with care, we can harvest the beauty of living a life of grace.
園藝教會我,植栽和種花 與創造我們生活的過程一樣。 這個創造過程始於春天, 你翻土,重新開始。 然後清除冬天的枯葉、 廢物和根。 然後,園丁必須確保 良好的配置 和正確、適當混合的土壤營養成分。 然後重要的是給表土通氣, 並將其鬆散地覆蓋在地表上。 你得不到那些美麗的花朵, 除非你先正確地準備好土壤。 當我們的花園被平衡地照顧好, 我們就能收穫美麗,優雅地過日子。
In the forests, when trees realize through their roots that another tree is sick, they will send a portion of their nutrients to that tree to help them to heal. They never think about what will happen to them or feel vulnerable when they do. When a tree is dying, it releases all of its nutrients to other trees that need it the most. Below the surface, we are all connected by our roots and sharing nutrients with each other. It's only when we come together that we can honestly grow. It's the same for humans in the garden of hardship. In this garden, when the caterpillar transforms into a chrysalis, this involves some struggle. But it's a challenge with a purpose. Without this painful fight to break free from the confines of the cocoon, the newly formed butterfly can't strengthen its wings. Without the battle, the butterfly dies without ever taking flight.
在森林中, 當樹木經由根意識到 另一棵樹正生著病時, 它們會將自己一部分的營養物質 輸送給生病的樹,以幫助它癒合。 它們從不考慮自己會怎樣, 也不因這樣做而覺得自己容易受傷。 將死之樹 會將所有營養的物質 釋放給其他最需要的樹木。 地表之下,我們都以根相連, 彼此分享營養。 只有在一起,我們才能真正成長。 在困難中的人也是如此。 在這花園裡, 當毛蟲變成蛹時 需要奮鬥。 但這是個有目的的挑戰。 沒有痛苦的奮鬥, 擺脫繭的限制, 新形成的蝴蝶無法強化翅膀。 不奮鬥,蝴蝶沒飛就死了。
My life's work is to illustrate how to integrate human connectivity into the garden. Gardens are full of magical wisdom for this transformation. Mother Nature is creative energy waiting to be born. Gardens are a mirror that cast their own reflection into our waking lives.
我一生的工作 是展示如何將人類連接融入花園。 花園充滿了這種轉變的神奇智慧。 大自然是等待出生的創造能量。 花園是一面鏡子, 將自己的反思投射到 我們清醒的生活中。
So nurture your talents and strengths while you appreciate all you've been given. Remain humble to healing. And maintain compassion for others. Cultivate your garden for giving and plant those seeds for the future. The garden is the world living deep inside of you.
因此,在欣賞你所獲得的一切的同時, 培養你的才能和優勢。 對癒合保持謙遜, 並保有對他人的同理心。 培養你佈施的花園, 為未來播種。 花園是活在你內心深處的世界。
Thank you.
謝謝。
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