The Review Zone logo       by Tina Velgos

A Garden of Love and Healing

Highly recommended book for working through grief through gardening.   

You can buy

A Garden of Love & Healing

now, from
     by Marsha Olson
Fairview Press
(800) 544-8207
$18.95 US
1577491114
2002
145 pages/soft-cover


If you've lost a loved one, you'll find this book comforting. Written by a grief counselor who has also worked professionally in landscape and garden design, Marsha Olson's book helps people heal and return to a sense of normalcy. This powerful book is about creating memory gardens which serve as living tributes to loved ones while helping you work through your grief, whether it be the loss of a spouse, a brother or sister, a child, or a pet.

Not only is the concept of Nature's Healing Spirit explored in an entire chapter, the author explains the symbolism of color and plants, different garden themes, remembrance rituals, and how to prepare, install, and maintain your memory garden.

Not only can you discover the zen of gardening by leafing through this book, you will learn very positive thoughts about embracing and accepting grief and returning to normalcy. The book contains many photographs of actual memory gardens (including a patriotic garden for victims of 9/11) and presents a harvest of ideas that are just stepping stones to a unique memory garden idea you may come up with after reading this book.

Gardening, like grieving, is a long and seemingly endless journey. I've found this book to be very gentle and down-to-earth. Many of us have already found peace in gardening. You can take it farther by creating a memory garden in your very own yard while applying a new-found talent (or an old one) and finding a spiritual force by this oneness with the earth.

Whether you have recently lost a loved one or it has been years since your loss, the connection with Mother Earth is powerful. I would highly recommend this book as the seed of tomorrow. May your gardens prosper and thrive as your plants face the rising sun and you embrace your sunny tomorrows.

Join me in my Zen garden as we toast Marsha Olson for her wonderful book filled with hope, love, and healing. The real-life stories in the book give the book a very real feel. For Ms. Olson's wish is "that as your loved one graced and blessed your life, you have graced them and blessed this earth with a healing garden made with love." Amen!