Sometimes you have to wonder whether the ‘wellbeing’ idea is just one of those luxuries of a wealthy society (although some of us might not be feeling that wealthy at the moment, it’s all relative). Does it really mean anything beyond green tea flavored Diet Coke or anti-oxidant rich chocolate bars? Is it just one of those passing phases that we’ll all forget about when we have to grow our own potatoes and truly eat seasonally once again? Is this all much ado about nothing, to borrow the title of a Shakespearean play which, like wellbeing, was immeasurably popular in its time?
Since changing one’s environment often brings answers, I take a break from writing my new book and visit the kirskål (bishop’s goutweed) in my garden. It doesn’t take long before I notice an odd smell emanating from somewhere in Mrs. Bengtsson’s garden just across the hedges (which my husband recently turned into dwarf bushes with his garden clippers). Everywhere there are buckets of nettle rotting in water. Mrs. Bengtsson toddles out in her flared blue jeans which must be another stunning vintage piece from the ’70’s.
Her nymph-like smile beckons across the hedges. “I hope you don’t mind the nettle water – the nettles have to soak in buckets for two weeks before you can use the water, you know. I highly recommend it for your roses.” “The people who lived in your house before you didn’t like my nettle water and I could only bring it out when everyone went to listen to Lasse Berghagen singing in the park across the road on Saturday nights.” I knew about nettle water and was already an enthusiast but I wondered whether Lasse Berghagen knew about the important connection between himself and rotting nettles.
Mrs. Bengtsson turns slowly towards her garden, still graceful despite the slight shake in her hands and head. She hesitates, turns back and says, “I hope you don’t feel that I am intruding when I come with advice. I feel so well in the garden – ever since I was a child really – and I suppose I want to share that feeling.” I ease her worry. Even if I am a child of the ’60’s and she a child of the ’20’s, that which makes us feel at one, in balance and creative unifies us and is perennial as the grass. Green tea flavored Coke might be a passing thing but wellbeing goes on.
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