Article April 12, 1999 Issue

ENJOYING NATURE, UNHARMED

Robert A. Wakefield

The garden is my place for peace and serenity. The growing plants and all the gentle creatures that live in the garden make a perfect atmosphere for having a thought filled with God, divine Truth and Love. I try to follow Mary Baker Eddy's instruction "... keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210). Focusing my thought in this way comes naturally to me while working in the garden.

One day while I was working on the hillside, feeling absolutely at peace with my surroundings, my hoe inadvertently whacked a large nest of yellow jackets. They swarmed me in militant defense. But nothing could disturb my thought, which was so happily filled with Truth and Love. I found myself calmly talking to them, reassuring them. After a few moments of angry buzzing, the whole group filed back into the nest without attacking me once.

I went about my work rejoicing. Then I felt a disturbance in my glove. It turned out to be one last yellow jacket. I held the glove open so that it could escape, and it staggered up my wrist and settled down on my arm to compose itself. After a moment of bodily readjustment, it flew back to the nest with the others.

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