When we come to this world, we all face a journey – the one that lasts a lifetime. Our destination is rarely known in advance. There is a start, a clear end, a few milestones in between, but other than that our destination is for us to choose. Sometimes we’re lucky to pick nice wide roads covered in freshly laid tarmac and surrounded by fragrant fields and cool ocean breezes. Sometimes, all we seem to get is a tangle of dark wood paths that go round and round, backing onto themselves, confusing, hostile, and narrow as an edge of a blade. It’s on the glum narrow paths that we pick up talismans, fill them with force of our own belief and keep on going till we get to a good place. When we get to that good place, we might forget about the talisman, or we might keep it, forming that special attachment. What is a talisman? A piece of jewelry, a funny shaped stone, a fiery maple leaf, a memory, a thought, a belief? Life can sometimes be so hard that belief is all we have to go on and a talisman is the vessel to harness and store that belief. The belief that is ultimately ours, ours to transfer to any object we like. Pick your talismans along the way, fill them with all the brilliant force of your belief, but never form attachments to the physical vessel. The belief is yours, the strength is yours, you are the hero of your own journey and I hope you have a good one.
Now, those of you who bothered to read till this line might ask: What’s all this talk about talismans and journeys and beliefs? Well, but of course, what can it be but a “literary” equivalent to: Here you go, read Chapter 3 of the Gardener and I hope you enjoy it.
When we come to this world, we all face a journey – the one that lasts a lifetime. Our destination is rarely known in advance. There is a start, a clear end, a few milestones in between, but other than that our destination is for us to choose. Sometimes we’re lucky to pick nice wide roads covered in freshly laid tarmac and surrounded by fragrant fields and cool ocean breezes. Sometimes, all we seem to get is a tangle of dark wood paths that go round and round, backing onto themselves, confusing, hostile, and narrow as an edge of a blade. It’s on the glum narrow paths that we pick up talismans, fill them with force of our own belief and keep on going till we get to a good place. When we get to that good place, we might forget about the talisman, or we might keep it, forming that special attachment. What is a talisman? A piece of jewelry, a funny shaped stone, a fiery maple leaf, a memory, a thought, a belief? Life can sometimes be so hard that belief is all we have to go on and a talisman is the vessel to harness and store that belief. The belief that is ultimately ours, ours to transfer to any object we like. Pick your talismans along the way, fill them with all the brilliant force of your belief, but never form attachments to the physical vessel. The belief is yours, the strength is yours, you are the hero of your own journey and I hope you have a good one.
Fear… Fear is a feeling we are typically embarrassed of. From an early age we are told not to show fear, we are given examples of heroes – real or imaginary – who are never afraid. Yet, fear is a basic feeling. A feeling most of us are born with; an inbuilt mechanism to avoid danger and ensure survival. Our bodies are programmed to have fear built into them. 
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