I stumbled upon this garden in Northern Ireland this summer. I had noticed it from the road some years ago but hadn't ventured in to investigate. To be honest, it was situated beside the Coleraine Council buildings and I suspected some tourist exhibit about the beauty of Northern Ireland or the north coast or a plaque on the history of the area. One grows so accustomed to everything being about commerce, money or even self-aggrandisement. I have reasons for my cynicism.
If you want to find the most luxurious offices in Northern Ireland don't look at private corporations look at the council buildings in every single city location. You will be amazed at how much money has gone into council offices. Not facilities like hospitals, schools or universities, but these exquisite office suites. Here are a few such council buildings but they are by no means unique, just large depressing symbols of how to waste public money. The contrast between their opulence and the conditions suffered by the sick and elderly in our community is eye-watering.
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| Coleraine Borough Council Building |
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| Derry and Strabane Borough Council Building |
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| Ballymena Borough Council Buildings |
It was a place for people to remember babies or children who had died. Grief was edged on every memorial placed on white walls with heartbreaking words underneath speaking of the loss of a loved one. Many, many babies were remembered and sometimes pictures were included of beautiful smiling faces of those who were lost. Poems like the one below spoke of the pain and seem to make it personal for even a passing viewer.
I walked around and read about these sweet souls. Love was tangible in every small picture or flower carefully placed and it made me realise that all this pain had always been there in our community. So many hurting hearts but without a tangible place to represent what had been taken too soon. Not a grave, not a place of sadness where the body lies, but a special place of love where all these children are remembered and celebrated by the family and the whole community. Everywhere there were toys colourful bright toys placed under trees and beside paths and it spoke of the joy that young lives bring.
There was a time when if a mother had a miscarriage or stillbirth the baby was quickly disposed of in the hospital system and mothers were left grieving without anything tangible to show for those months of pregnancy and hope. Now, in a more enlightened age, such babies are dressed in beautiful clothes and wrapped in blankets so that their parents and family are allowed to hold the lost one. Photos are taken and impressions made of tiny feet or hands that will be kept for a lifetime. These acts of consideration and kindness, by medical staff, at this critical moment recognises the grief that must follow. So to, do such beautiful gardens of hope in our communities. They are 1000 miles away from the commercialism and materialism we see around us daily. They speak of hearts, loss, bonds and love. They remind us of what's really important and what we must never forget. At a time when the tendency in this world is to become desensitised, to the coarseness of public discourse and actions, it is so healthy to be reminded of the sensitivity and beauty that should be our birthright.
When there is love loss is unbearable. Each death diminishes us all. Whether it is due to illness or disease. Whether that life is taken from us by violence, accident or war the grief and loss is beyond words. But the fact that it is so colossal a loss must never be forgotten and such places remind of us of that. Hearts need to be softened, not hardened. Only by recognising the pain of loss and supporting those who experience it, everywhere around the world, do we cease to be part of the problem but instead become part of the solution.
"Love is the spirit of life unto
the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this
mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race
and nation."
from Bahá’à Writings
