A woman diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer finds healing in a neighbor's garden. This paper and presentation use her words to illuminate what the garden means to her during her cancer treatments.

1. Steps Towards Healing :
The Garden Oasis
Down the Street
By Joan Vorderbruggen, AIA
Assistant Professor of Architecture
North Dakota State University
With personal interviews and journal entries
by Lisa Overby-Blosser
EDRA44 Providence
Nature and Ecology, Session 1 5/30/13

2. “One hundred and seventy-one steps;
the distance from my house to yours.”
Lisa Overby-Blosser,
personal interviews and journal
entries, Summer 2012

3. “Originally I came to the garden because I lacked an environment to be genuine with
accepting the illness: for example, not wanting to upset my children or bring more
pain upon my husband. The garden accepts sadness, anger, frustration, and gives
one a space to distance themselves from their regular duties.” Lisa Overby-Blosser

4. PROSPECT “In the garden you have control – of where you sit, where you look,
what you choose to focus on – whether it’s a wide view or something really small –
like the trickle of the water in the pond. There are so many choices available to you.
(In the hospital you are castrated from the choices you can make!) The fact that you
can make a choice of something can be healing.” Lisa Overby-Blosser

5. REFUGE
“The garden is always welcoming; no plants fall
over or trees drop their leaves in disgust or
empathy when I took my hat off exposing my
baldness . . . .
The garden accepts where your body and
emotions are at that moment in time. Sitting in
the garden, too tired to even hold my legs
together, I let them flop to each side of the
chair… I don’t have to waste energy sitting
pretty.” Lisa Overby-
Blosser

6. REFUGE “You are constantly reminded of hope and healing, instead of cold floors.
Here you feel clothed; it’s the comfort from the warmth of the sun on your skin. The
hospital is cold. You feel naked – there’s an intrusive feeling – because you’re always
exposed for every kind of test, unsure of what is next. The garden sheds the warmth
of comfort, and security so desperately needed. ” Lisa Overby-Blosser

7. WATER “The pond’s waterfall is a lullaby to my ears…. One day I noticed that
there were ripples in the pond. In the garden, there is change. Sometimes when
you’re ill, you don’t see changes fast enough. ” Lisa
Overby-Blosser

8. BIODIVERSITY “[The garden was] an abundant feast to my eyes, to which I could
never take all of it in within a visit. ” Lisa Overby-
Blosser

9. BIODIVERSITY
“The feeling of the wind and warmth of
summer brought me back to the basics of
staying in my skin – of keeping me from
disassociating myself from my body (as
one can during medical treatment).”
Lisa Overby-Blosser

10. SENSORY VARIABILITY
“When barefoot you feel the different textures. You feel connected to the earth…
[you] touch the round, warm pebbles that remind you that there is more than pain.
You are reminded that your body can still accept comfort and warmth.”
Lisa Overby-Blosser

11. BIOMIMICRY “You took time to plan it all, but to the observer, it looks natural.
The garden didn’t have to be perfect in the sense that it appears artificial. It’s all
real.” Lisa Overby-
Blosser

12. BIOMIMICRY
“The five steps on the green
grass carpet lead my eyes to
look forward – the four grey
granite flat stones are
next, not in a line or
arrow, but randomly placed
to show the way.
The granite stones are the
first of many gentle angles
within the garden that soften
the harsh, sharp, linear world
I am leaving – hospital
corridors, hospital rooms,…
IV’s, chemo, blood draws….”
Lisa Overby-Blosser

13. “It is challenging to access my thinking brain in the hospital, my ears
are filled with distractions, the beeps, alarms, nurse call lights…the
artificial sounds of equipment, doors opening and closing. I feel as
though these sounds are intrusions in my own thoughts. Within this
monochromatic colored room, its absence of warmth iterates how
lonely cancer can be.
Its hard, linear lines form a barren vision, my eyes have nowhere to
rest, nothing to alleviate the pain within, nowhere to seek the peace
and hope I so desperately need…Here in the infusion center my room
confines me with all that is artificial. I am surrounded by plastics…The
room’s color palate of white, cream and beige continue the
institutional, sterile atmosphere. It becomes a hollow place to me –
without movement. I am all that is natural there.”
Lisa Overby-Blosser

14. PLAYFULNESS
“I was attracted to the birds in the pond – their hysterical antics while taking a bath
would bring laughter, even when I was in a lot of pain.
The bird’s bath dance always uplifts me to a smile, giggle and laugher…I am
reminded that I can laugh – things can still be funny. The bird dances fill my heart
with humor, freedom, and playfulness, as I am a part of this moment.”
Lisa Overby-Blosser
photo credit:
nesttbirds1.com

15. PLAYFULNESS “When your illness restricts your movement, the garden
surrounds you with movement, and allows you to dance in it (referring to watching
the tall grasses blow in the wind). There’s no need to move.” Lisa Overby-Blosser
photo credit:
Jim Brandenburg

16. ENTICEMENT
“The different paths allow
your mind to wander in
different ways.
Paths always symbolize a
journey, and that’s en-
couraging. Even just seeing
the paths would help – I’d
walk them with my
eyes, too tired to venture on
foot.”
Lisa Overby-Blosser

17. “By taking the time to sit, it gave me the energy to go back home and to be a mom
and a wife.” Lisa Overby-
Blosser

18. LIFE’S CYCLES
“Each visit and encounter is
distinctly different, in all the
times I have sought the shelter
of the garden, the experience
is never duplicated.
In the garden I come to see life,
growth, and predictable gentle
deaths. In its fullness the
garden is a happy place.”
Lisa Overby-Blosser

19. THE PILGRIMAGE
“The walk here was always emotionally very
dark; it was filled with thoughts of medical
treatments, or how the kids were going to
react. How much should I tell the kids?
Then I’d get to the garden and start to feel
better. The walk home was always better –
even my posture was different. I lifted my
eyes from the sidewalk, returning with
expanded vision.”
Lisa Overby-Blosser

20. CONCLUSION
“The garden allows your senses to
come alive. You want to hear and you
want to see and you want to smell.
It’s a place where you want to be
alive, whereas when in treatment in
the hospital, you just want your
senses to shut down.”
Lisa Overby-Blosser

21. “The garden allows you to take deeper breaths – to breath.
Maybe just getting rid of stress helped heal [myself of] the cancer.”
Lisa Overby-Blosser
photo credit:
Jim Brandenburg

22. photo credit:
Jim Brandenburg
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