The World Is in My Garden: A Journey of Consciousness by Chris Maser

As I worked in my garden, I began to see that all the global problems with which I had for so long been wrestling (ecological, social, personal, and spiritual) were reduced to the size of personal awareness and understanding in ways that I could never have imagined as a younger man. Every conceivable problem was only a matter of scale and essentially the same, regardless of culture or language, and was played out again and again, whether I saw it in the subarctic of Alaska, the deserts of Egypt or the American Southwest, the jungles of Malay, the Alps of Europe, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, or the coast of Oregon. The problems were not only repeated elsewhere but also occurred in my garden in one way or another. This is not surprising, when I think of it, because culture is a structure that is artificially imposed on people and consequently reflected in their gardens. While the specifics might differ, the principles are identical, and the scale of the problem in my garden is one I can understand, relate to, affect, and expand again to a global view.