Gardening and spirituality. Spirituality and gardening. It doesn't matter which way you say it. This is a phrase that suggests a slew of sentiments: hopefulness, romance, Zen-like balance and New Age mediations. But is there any truth to it? How about all of those books that describe the blissful state one can encounter while toiling in the garden?

Since I can only speak from personal experience, this is what I can tell you about my encounters with spirituality, the landscape and the realities of gardening. This state of calm and transcendence does not occur the moment I kneel in my garden to begin to weed (even if I do take 5 deep breaths).

When gardening, for the majority of time I am in not in a state of reverie. My mind is in a working mode and I'm often thinking about what needs to be done. At the same time, I'm taking in the shapes, colors, textures and sounds that surround me. When gardening, I am extremely active both mentally and physically. I am definitely not in a passive state.

After a few hours of sweating with dirt all over me and insects buzzing around the upper half of my body, I may begin to get a sense of being in tune with nature. It's at these moments where I take note of a worm that is maneuvering its way out of the dirt or a butterfly that silently lands on a bush next to me. With subtlety and a total lack of self consciousness, I come out of myself, look around, marvel at the majesty of what I am experiencing and begin to take note that I have entered some type of altered state of consciousness.