Finding Balance Between the Individual Life and the Universe: Innisfree Gardens

At the end of June, I had the pleasure of visiting the Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, NY, a botanical garden that draws inspiration from traditional Chinese and Japanese garden design and blends it beautifully with the European design principles of Modernism and Romanticism. The result is an astounding sanctuary of unique architecture and a variety of flourishing plant life. 

During my visit, I attended a gathering and class about Taoist ideology and movement entitled “Moving Through the Tao Te Ching: Poetry, Garden, and Body as One,” led by Cris Caivano, a movement therapist and certified Qigong teacher. Cris’ goal for the lesson was to introduce the ideas of Taoism, connecting the ideology’s practices with the Innisfree Garden’s atmosphere. Along the way, Cris presented a variety of Qigong movements—exercises that emphasize body posture, meditation, and breathing techniques to connect to one’s own spirituality. Cris spoke about the importance of finding our place in the world around us by connecting with our natural surroundings—in other words, she spoke about psychogeography. “The only obstacle to living in balance is one’s own self,” she emphasized.

During our lesson, Cris introduced a set of Taoist movements that are similar to meditative practices. The fluid movements of the arms, simple stretches of the spine and neck, and breathing techniques all contributed to my process of grounding myself in the moment and in my present environment. Cris then explained that these movements aim to enact the essence of the water, trees, ground, and sky. Movements that reflect the water are fluid and soothing, while movements inspired by trees are deeply rooted and focus on stretching. While practicing the movements she instructed, I felt my mind quiet, as I thought only of my surroundings, especially those which I was enacting. When I performed water-inspired movements, I felt my mind calming and my problems slowly sweeping away. When I performed movements inspired by trees, I felt strong and tall. As Cris guided us through these movements, she spoke soothingly of the importance of taking a moment to oneself. In that moment, I felt fully at peace, like my life and my surroundings were united. 

After my guided movement practice with her, Cris talked at length about Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, a 2,500-year-old Chinese poem that is the foundation of Taoism, a philosophy that promotes the idea that humans should live in balance with the universe. That conversation ultimately led me to a passage from chapter eight, which connects beautifully with the concepts of biophilia and psychogeography that I’ve been exploring:

The highest good is like water.

Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.

It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.

In dwelling, be close to the land.

In meditation, go deep in the heart.

In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.

As can be seen from this passage, the Taoist ideologies heavily emphasized respect for the surrounding natural world, similar to psychogeography and biophilia. According to the passage, water as “the highest good” is ever-reliable. To live a fulfilling life, the passage suggests, individuals must maintain their relationships with the land they live on, for that relationship is foundational for how one interacts with oneself and with others. 

When I connect ancient Chinese philosophy with the Yeats-inspired Innisfree Garden, I understand how the relationship people maintain with nature can be entirely unique from the connection with other people—consistently alive and never-ceasing. Innisfree Garden is a place of serenity and peace. The garden allows its visitors to connect with nature and to hear its sounds in, as Yeats wrote, “the deep heart’s core.” It invites and persuades the individual visitor to connect fully and presently to time and place. Indeed, since it opened to the public in 1960, Innisfree Garden has evoked the feelings represented in its namesake poem and inspires everything I’m pursuing with The Innisfree Project—demonstrating how people can revive their relationship with nature and, subsequently, with themselves. 

Cris’ lesson focused on this very concept. Living harmoniously with our surroundings, she argued, is vital to understanding ourselves. The spectacular background of Innisfree Garden only emphasized the degree to which Cris’ ideas could be implemented. The focus that 

Cris placed on Taoists movement taught me how elemental and simple connecting with myself and with nature can actually be. Sometimes, she says, all we need is to forgive ourselves, and to put our lives in the context of the wider world. The movements Cris taught will contribute to my thoughts of my place in the environment.

On my visit to Innisfree Garden, I had another conversation too. While there, I had the pleasure of meeting Kate Kerin, the garden’s landscape curator. A good friend and colleague of Cris’, Kate is an avid supporter of Cris’ work with Taoism and connecting oneself with nature through balance, and she tries to practice this balance in her work of selecting and maintaining the garden’s plantlife. When I asked her about the importance of Innisfree Garden, Kate spoke passionately about the relief and comfort the garden brings people who are typically unable to spend large periods of time in nature. Kate explained that getting off of our phones and devices, even for an hour, and walking through an environment like the garden is an essential experience for humans. This kind of immersion in the natural world, separate from the constant worries of our daily lives and to absorb the benefits that nature offers our moods and mindsets, is very much at the core of the concepts of biophilia and psychogeography. 

Places such as Innisfree Garden offer not only spectacular views, but the opportunity for individuals to connect with nature. By finding that balance between the individual and the universe, perhaps we can find harmony within ourselves.