MY GARDEN OF PLEASURE

Zamira Batrisyia Sharol Anwar, 15, of Rafflesia International School in Puchong writes about her love for her natural, untamed garden

ICAN still remember clearly even though six years has passed. My father had taken my elder brother, me and my mother with him to live in Virginia as he had been posted to Washington DC in the United States for work.

We had moved into the house in Virginia during the winter. From my upstairs bedroom window, I could see nothing but snow, like a thick white blanket covering everything lying underneath it.

But I waited patiently, day after day. Then it came. Spring! And the snow began to melt. As the days passed by, under my watchful eyes, I saw the backyard transform into a garden, a garden that brought me pleasure through my lonely days and sad times.

As spring matured, so did the flowers blossom. I would then go into the garden because of the warm weather. I sat among the flowers that grew so wild, on top of a carpet of springy grass that I had so longed to see during the winter months. I smelled the fresh air around me and felt my heart suddenly full of contentment. I sighed as I watched two Robins chase each other around a tree. I never knew what the name of the tree was but I was just as happy to see it begin to bud.

A few weeks later, it was summer. I went out the back door and at once the sun glared at me. Its rays stung, so I quickly ran to the tree and sat down in its shade. Then a bee came and buzzed around a bright orange flower beside me.

Conscious of the bee, I suddenly froze. I watched it go away and started to relax again.

The garden had become very colourful during the weeks that went by. Golden Daisies had replaced the yellow Daffodils, bright purple Violets had replaced the light blue Bluebells and dusky pink flowers had replaced the brown buds that were growing on the nameless tree.

All these and the warm summer breeze made me rather drowsy, which reminded me of Alice in the story of “Alice in Wonderland”, who fell asleep “all on a summer’s day” and dreamt about all sorts of peculiar things in her garden.

It was all the more so when I saw a caterpillar slowly crawling along a leaf on a stalk of flower. I gave a serene smile and then decided to join my friends at play.

As the summer days passed by, this became a ritual for me. Coming home from school, I had my tea and then, off to my lovely garden. I never watered the plants, nor did I ever mow the lawn. I wanted my garden to be just the way it was: beautiful, unspoilt and full of creepy crawlies. My garden has never deceived me. It has always given me the purest of human pleasure.

I believe that it is the same in life – we often want the people around us to be sincere, and just be themselves when they are with us. But they can never be that way unless we let them. We should not be too judgmental of others and accept that everyone is different, and have different points of views. Even the way everyone has been brought up by their families is different.

If we do not learn to accept everyone on their own terms, we may end up losing them instead as we’d be seen as being closed minded and petty. That’s why I believe friends should also be nurtured much like the way I had nurtured my garden – natural, unspoilt and free.