A TRANQUIL INTERLUDE

Headed off this morning, not on an energetic walk (naughty me, got up too late), but out with friends to the Evandale Market, then on to Tranquility Gardens just north of Launceston on the West Tamar Hwy. Since moving to Tassie fifteen years ago I’ve really enjoyed the fact you can drive into and out of even the major cities in a matter of minutes to reach the greenery on the other side. Though we’ve only had about half the amount of rainfall for the corresponding period last year, at the moment everything is lush and green, dams are looking healthy, and the brilliant sunshine of the past couple of days has brought people out and about.

Tranquility Gardens has been open as a restaurant for only four years, but was built about thirty years ago by a Japanese businessman as a holiday house. Situated atop a hill overlooking the Tamar Valley, a Japanese style garden was gradually established on the hillside, leading down to a man made lake. As is the case with traditional Japanese gardens, it is easy to see how the setting can become a place of quiet reflection. Meandering paths and bridges lead you gently down the slope, waterfalls, rivulets, manicured shrubs, stone sculptures, moss covered rocks and the lake with its fountain all combine to create a calming little world set apart from the busy pace of life outside.

It’s in these moments, as we sit and have lunch together in a delightful setting and wander around the gardens, I am reminded how vital friends are to our emotional well being. It’s all too easy to drift along in the daily routine, doing what I have to, then retreating to my cave at the end of the day. We all lead busy lives, and it would be easy to not make the effort to spend time with others, but when I do, my life is enriched.

I not only make contact with a world outside my own, but the time spent with friends reaps its rewards. It reminds me that these people are important to me. I care about them, and what’s really affirming, is I know they care about me. Investing in each other’s lives can have lifelong benefits, both for those who give and those who receive.

The day was topped off when on the homeward journey we witnessed the antics of the newborn lambs in the paddocks, and the black swan on her nest in the middle of a dam. Spring is coming, the promise of new life is already evident.