My father loves classical music. As a child, whenever we would travel, the first thing he would do in our hotel room is find the classical music station on the radio, and turn it on.

He enthusiastically encouraged my sister and I to pursue classical music training. I studied the violin, my sister studied the piano. And while we did attend baseball and football games, we were more often enjoying the beautiful works of the Seattle Symphony, of which my dad had season tickets.

My father also enjoys gardening. He can spend hours planting flowers, weeding and trimming the trees and bushes. He loves to walk slowly through gardens in other cities and take the time to really stop and smell the roses – no pun intended! As a kid, I have to be honest; sometimes I thought both of his passions were neat, but a little boring.

Once I graduated college and entered the “workforce”, I found myself stressed out like never before. All around us is stimulation. We are stimulated by TV, computers, cell phones, and simple noises. With the ability to receive emails on our Blackberries and a cell phone that is never turned off, we, in a sense, are “never turned off”. We are always going, always moving.

Now, several years later, as I was traveling to another city for work, as I checked into my hotel, I found myself heading straight to the radio and searching for the classical music station. Sometimes on a late drive, I will turn up the classical music in the car. The beautiful works of Mozart and Tchaikovsky soothe me and calm me down.

Then, just recently I traveled to London for work. At the end of the day, I wanted nothing more than to just walk around Hyde Park and look at the flowers. I found the most delightful collection of roses and thought, “my father would love these.” Why did I need to be around flowers? Because the buzz of the city and life were wearing me down. And so I turned to nature and regained peace.

I finally asked my dad a few weeks ago why he loves classical music and gardens so much. He is a financial consultant and is always on the go, reading and working hard for his clients in the business world. He said that when the day is done, he loves turning on classical music and simply letting his mind go … not letting any chatter or talk cloud his mind. Classical music pieces are often very long, which means there is plenty of time to lose yourself in the music and let your mind wander.

He added that he loves gardens because it is God’s creation. Flowers are beautiful and simple, and they do not tell us what to do or what to think. They just bloom and invite us to enjoy their splendor.

I realized that my dad had discovered what I am just discovering now; in the fast paced world we live in, we need our moments of quiet; our moments of peace. I need them more often than I realize. For you it may be a museum, it may be painting or it may be a walk on the beach. Find what your “garden” is and go there when you need to re-charge.

One of the world’s all time favorite gospel songs is “In the Garden” and the lyrics seem more necessary and important today than ever before. I ask you – do you have a garden? Do you have a private place you can escape to every so often and just be? A place to re-charge your batteries and simply enjoy God’s creation? I encourage you to take a moment and walk in the Garden. Here are a few lines from the famous gospel song.