Zachiah Murray tells us that mindfulness is an awareness of what is around us and within us in the moment, so that we can see deeply without being caught in the past or the future. She says mindfulness has a different flavor from meditation, “Meditation tends to take you from the outside very deeply inward. Mindfulness does the same thing in it centers you, but you are aware of everything that’s happening; it brings you ultimately right into what you’re experiencing, from touching this table cloth to feeling my feet on the ground, to seeing you across the table. It is really being present to those things and it often uses the breath to do that.” She goes on to describe how gardening encourages mindfulness because it requires our immediate attention and the attention of all our senses. She likens cultivating a garden to spiritual practice, inspiring each person to accept themselves and start where they are, weeds and all. Through the practice of mindful gardening, we invite not only the thriving of the natural world but also the flowering and beauty of the pure land of our true self to emerge.