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follow your guide, the ladybug....
The front of the house, 2002. It doesn't look like this now...
The garden is a very dynamic place--things are always changing. You need to go back time and time again, not only to see everything that's there but to see all the changes.
{Part of the joy of going to Tom's comes from the exploration, the surprise of new things--or old things in new places. As a metaphor for our spiritual path, the garden serves to remind us that even things that are familiar to us have new meanings and new faces when we take the time to really look at them.
This was the view
from the corner of the street in 2002...
Tom has been working and rearranging in the front yard and
it doesn't look like this any more. As he opens up the flow of the
interior of the garden, he is actually making it more private from the street.
It is not as obvious that there are people in the front yard as it was in
the past.
One of the few things that does remain in place is the line of the famous "White Bicycles" that create a fence along the side of the yard. Even if someone hasn't been into the backyard, these bikes are definitely a landmark to Manassas residents.
Tom changes the decorations on the bikes, according to the season and holiday.
Another constant in the garden is the variety of Tom's sculptures--but they do not stay in one place! They also move around...
There was a cactus made from horseshoes...used to be in the backyard but it's moved to a new home in a friend's "Tuscan courtyard"...
"The whole moon and
sky come to rest
in a single dewdrop on a blade of grass."
~~Dogen
So we walk
down the driveway and enter the backyard...and now, for something completely
different...
This pretty much sums up the experience of being in the garden.
A tranquil and sacred place, Tom's garden is a much better alternative than Prozac or Valium to life's stress.
{If you sit quietly, the animals that live here will come out--and the fairies are always around. There is real evidence of the Little People--ask anyone who's taken a picture here about the shining little balls of light that float above the bushes in their photos. Even the Green Man has been glimpsed here, peering out of the bushes and from behind the trees...and I don't mean the masks.
The medicine wheel in 2002,
which is now tucked behind the waterfall pond.
The center of the medicine wheel. You can just see the back edge of the waterfall pond. There are many amazing stones and crystals in the center. People bring things to Tom as well as take what they need. A soldier took a stone from this wheel to Iraq while serving there. The catch was that he could only borrow it--and so he did, returning it when he came home safe and sound. He also brought back a stone from Iraq that now resides in the wheel.
The other side of the
central stone.
There are paving stones that radiate out from this stone in the four cardinal
directions (North, South, East and West) almost touching the circle of rocks
that make the outer limits of the wheel.
Circle of the Crystal Grove has held ritual within the medicine wheel several times now, in addition to the many other groups and individuals who find this a wonderful place to mark the Universal connection and honor the sacredness within.
There's that
horseshoe cactus, just left of center in the picture.
This is another photo from 2002 and it's amazing to see how much has changed
since then.
Cactus has given way to Buddha at the entrance to the medicine wheel.
The flowers still
bloom, of course. In unexpected spots, a sudden flare of color catches the
eye--and it's not clear until you walk up to them whether the blooms are silk or
live. And if you are there at the right time of year, there is fruit--real
and definitely edible!
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