BENCHTALK

Hasan Ali’s collection of journal entries serves up wisdom, humor, and life lessons.

Taken from the journal entries of visitors to more than 100 community green spaces created by the nonprofit group Nature Sacred, this volume compiles writings submitted over the past 25 years. The pieces—by turns funny, sad, practical, inspiring, and frivolous—come from numerous locations, including the Mt. Washington Arboretum in Baltimore, Maryland; the Naval Cemetery Landscape in Brooklyn, New York; the Brenton Arboretum in Dallas Center, Iowa; the Life Garden at Fort Payne Walking Park in Fort Payne, Alabama; and the Terrace Garden at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, among many others. The topics are divided into five categories: nature’s healing power, hardship and hope, encouraging words, wisdoms and life lessons, and connections and community. The contributions include crude stick figure drawings and more elaborate illustrations, laconic wisdom (“I came to talk to the willows. They speak very slowly. No rush”) and intricate prose and poetry. Visitors were invited to add anything they liked to the journals, including jokes and life news (“My first baby was born two days ago!”) as well as musings that are quite philosophical and esoteric. It’s a convenient text that one can pick up when the impulse strikes, read for a few minutes, and receive a wide variety of thoughts and perspectives in different writing and drawing styles. Some of the best material comes from children; Dylan writes, “If anything goes wrong remember it could be worse.” Seven-year-old Ella reports: “I love this plase becus this book breegs all of are feelings togethr.” One of the joys of this compilation is the way that passages like these live side-by-side with others from more veteran writers (and spellers). It’s a book that will sneak up on you—a beautiful collection of voices from the past quarter-century.

Real people sharing their thoughts in different ways makes for a compelling and heartfelt compilation.