Author: Illustrations by:

Ben Page Tay Arrow

 Fundación El Bosque y La Niebla Collection
Supported by Alianza una organización del grupo Delima.
About the author Original title: The Wild Garden
Ben Page is a Forest Bathing Guide, global advocate for the Author: Ben Page @Integralforestbathing
practice and the author of Healing Trees: A Pocket Guide Illustrations: Tay Arrow @Tayarrow_art
to Forest Bathing. He is the founder of Shinrin Yoku LA and
Passiflora, sp. Pages 1 and 10
Integral Forest Bathing and has been guiding Forest Bathing
Illustrated by Carlos Rubio @cerubiogamez)
walks since 2015. During his tenure as a trainer and mentor
of guides, Ben has trained hundreds of guides around the
world. From 2017-2020, he served as the Director of Training Copyright © 2020 by Ben Page (All rights reserved)
for the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and
Programs, specializing in curriculum and pedagogical design. I.S.B.N 979-8-9866977-0-3
Since his practice began, Ben has been featured in such Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:
publications as Women’s Health, USA TODAY, Good Morning
America, The Washington Post, and WebMD. Ben is also a co-
founder of The Open School, Southern California’s only free Editorial Design: Miró Publicidad
democratic school. He holds a B.A. in religious studies from
Carleton College and an M.A. in human development and First edition, Printed in the U.S.A . 2022
social change from Pacific Oaks College.
Once upon a time, in a land not too
far away, there was a forest that
no human had ever claimed. It was
a place of true wildness. The roots
of the trees dwelled deep within
the Earth and their crowns touched
the heavens above. The forest was
abundant with the signs of death
that revealed the emergence of life;
this never-ending circle was what
gave the forest her rugged beauty.

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 And then, one day, a human
arrived. He looked around and said
to himself, “This place would be so
beautiful if only we removed some
of these dead trees, if only we
chased off these bothersome pests,
if only we made pathways to walk
upon and fountains to bathe in, if
only.” He could not appreciate the
beauty of the wild because he had
forgotten it within himself.

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 And so, the human donned a gardener’s
crown and began his work. He had
learned what beauty was from his
masters and their thick books and long-
revered wisdom. He knew how to make
the forest into an imagined paradise.
He brought life from other places, more
beautiful to his eye than what had been
there before. He trimmed and cut and
weeded and dug. He tore up the deep
roots and cut the crowns from the trees.
He removed what he called ugly and
transformed what was left. And when he
took his day of rest, he looked around and
the work was finished.

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 But the work was not truly finished,
for soon the wildness returned.
The plants in the garden grew.
The animals came from the forest
and ate the fruit from the vine.
The leaves fell from the trees
and carpeted the Earth. And the
gardener went back to his toil and
every week he battled to keep the
garden as perfect as it was in his
imagined fantasy.

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 Until one day, the gardener
became exhausted. He looked at
his calloused hands and he made
a new plan with them. He built
a giant wooden wall around the
whole garden, a wall so tall that
he could see nothing but sky from
the inside.

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 When he finished his wall, the
garden was more obedient. Nothing
went mysteriously missing, nothing
appeared as if dreamed up from the
earthen soil. The gardener smiled as
he realized that from then on, the
beauty of his garden would always be
exactly as he had meant it to be. And
for many years, nothing changed.

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 Until one day, a family of
woodpeckers arrived. The rhythmic
drumming of their song left holes
in the wall. And through those
holes, wildness drifted back into the
garden again in the shape of seeds
carried on the breath of the wind.
The seeds took root instantly in the
garden soil, as if coming back to a
familiar home.

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 By this time, the gardener was getting
older. He couldn’t move as quickly
as he could before. He was not as
productive as when he was younger.
As time wore on, the seeds became
trees and flowers and shrubs, their
roots sinking deeper every day. The
holes in the wall opened wider, and
animals began to return.
The signs of death came as well, as
autumn turned to winter. Though
he resisted at first, the gardener
understood that he could not keep
the world out, and so he grew in
compassion, and welcomed the world
in. He welcomed all the returning
beings, even death.
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 Even after the gardener passed away,
the garden remained. There would
always be traces of his labor leftover.
The rotting wall became covered in
ivy, the rusting pruning shears were
ceremonially leaned against a tree and
the pathways hosted congregations of
daisies and dandelion; all of this held
its own dignity and beauty. Nothing
was denied and nothing was forgotten;
everything had its place. Slowly and
gently, the garden remembered its own
wildness, and it was good.

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 The El Bosque y la Niebla Foundation practices forest
therapy as a tool for reconciliation between human
beings and nature. The Wild Garden is a beautiful story
inspired by the fundamentals of this practice. It is a
short story that challenges the meaning of what we
call “beauty” and “perfection”, with illustrations that
present alternate reflections. It is a story that contains
natural wisdom, in a few pages. We thank Ben and Tay
for allowing us to spread this story in other latitudes
than where it was created and to reach other hearts, also
interconnected with the Earth.

ISBN 979-8-9866977-0-3

90000>

9 798986 697703