Report From PIA – March 13
I was at the grocery store today, and when I handed my debit card to the cashier, she recognized my name. “Weren’t you just on the radio?” she asked, “I listen to your show all the time.”
I answered yes, that the station was only about a mile from the store. “I’m not much of a gardener,” the clerk continued, “but I think that your program is very healing. That’s what I get out of it.” This remark stayed with me throughout the day.
GardenLine is a live program and except for the segments when I’m speaking to a guest, I’m answering my callers’ gardening questions. Most of the time the information is purely practical…I don’t get into metaphors and philosophy too much on the radio, even though I lean far in that direction here.
So what is healing about down and dirty gardening advice? We know that looking at gardens is soothing and even lowers blood pressure, and gardening is good exercise, which is a stress reducer in itself. But how are mere suggestions for, say, long-blooming perennials, or the way to prune your hydrangeas restorative?
I’ve decided that a gardening program is healing because we’re talking about growth, and creating lovely surroundings. Unlike a great deal of other talk radio programming, no one is arguing, angry or in a political tizzy on GardenLine…no one is convinced that they are right and everyone else is wrong. All who tune in do so because they want to see, or even help create, places of beauty.
This tells me that when I’m working on other positive endeavors, public or personal, that I’m on the right track. Supporting A Complaint Free World, being a more forgiving and cheerful driver, or making time for mediation and prayer is really important. There are so many ways to cultivate a more beautiful world, and on the radio or not, we can all start in our own backyards.
In the process of creating beautiful gardens, we beautify ourselves and the world.
