Growing soul and joy
Hermann Hesse's Garden

Hermann Hesse, the greatest poet and writer of his time and Nobel Prize winner.
However, he was banned from publishing and branded a traitor and a traitor for opposing the two world wars that his home country, Germany, had started. He also suffered personal misfortune and received psychiatric treatment.
While undergoing psychotherapy, he began painting flowers and landscapes, and also devoted himself to cultivating his own garden.
Hermann Hesse was a writer constantly searching for himself, but when he was gardening, he forgot himself and started weeding from dawn, tending to tomatoes and flowers, and burning fallen leaves.


He was once so good at gardening that he made a living growing grapes.
It is said that Hermann Hesse created a garden every time he moved house.
“I don’t know how to live easily and comfortably, but I can do one thing as I please.
“That is to live beautifully,” Hesse once said.
He dreamed of and nurtured a beautiful life in his garden.

When I lived in Gaienhofen and Bern, I planted vegetables and flowers, fertilized and watered them, pulled weeds from the paths, and chopped all that firewood myself for at least ten years.
It was a wonderful job and I learned a lot, but in the end it became a hard labor that I had to do.
Gardening is fun when done for fun, but when it becomes a way of life and a duty, the fun disappears.

--- p.
8

For those who love to take walks and spend Sundays in nature, these are good times again.
They can wander around and enjoy the miracle of new life sprouting.
I look at the colorful flowers that beautifully decorate the green meadows of early spring and am delighted to see the buds of trees just poking their heads through the pine resin.
You can break off a silver willow branch and place it in your room, and admire the wonder of it sprouting and blooming at the right time as if it were a natural thing.
I have many thoughts, but no worries.

--- p.
10

If your eyes hurt and your head feels heavy, you need to switch to simple repetitive tasks.
For this purpose, the gardening and fake labor I have invented over the years not only get my body moving and my mood changing, but also allow me to meditate, let my imagination run wild, and focus my mind.

--- p.
19

After he had passed the pinnacle of life, and descended deep into the long shadow of the valley, his thoughts abandoned the fear of death.
He realized that where he came from and where he was headed were the same place.
The voice of life that had called him every day since childhood and made him take steps forward, slowly began calling him from beyond.
The sound changed into the voice of death, and following that sound was incredibly beautiful and mysterious.
Life or death.
It was just a word, but it sang with a seductive voice, it drew me in, it made me move forward to the beat of each day, it led me home.
--- pp.
31-32

Health, integrity, thoughtless optimism, smiling away from all serious problems, avoiding aggressive questions, and the art of enjoying the moment.
These are the slogans of our time.
People hope that in this way they can fool themselves into forgetting the painful memories of World War II.
The exaggerated act of pretending that nothing is wrong seems to mimic the American way.
He acts foolishly, exaggerating like an actor dressed up as a fat baby, and smiles so brightly and happily that it's hard to believe.

--- p.
44

When life becomes too sad to bear, the tree speaks to us.

“Calm down! Calm down! Look at me! Life is neither easy nor difficult.
All of that is just childish thinking.
If you let God speak within you, such childish thoughts will fall silent.
The reason you feel fear is because the road you are taking takes you farther away from your mother and from your hometown.
But with every step you take, you are led back to your mother every day.
Hometown isn't somewhere here or there.
“Home is within you, nowhere else.”
--- p.
78

The daily life of those who till the land is filled with diligence and labor, but without impatience or worry.
At the heart of that life is piety, a belief in the sacredness of the earth, water, air, and the four seasons, and a confidence in the vitality of plants and animals.

--- p.
94