Campus Project in Progress: The Garden of Listening at the University of Maryland

• In Event: Transforming education through social emotional learning: Happiness curriculum, garden of listening, and empathy cultivation through storytelling

Proposal

During this time of civic divisions, the multifaith Memorial Chapel at the University of Maryland is creating a natural space to be called the Garden of Listening. This transformed Garden, to be inaugurated this fall, will center on the outward act of connection through dialogue — connecting and dialoguing with other human beings, with nature, and with the world outside of oneself. Arches adorned with plant life and signage offering poetry will welcome visitors to the approximately half-acre space. Long-established trees and plants in the Garden will be supplemented with new plantings to give the space a fresh look and create appealing natural spots where individuals, it is hoped, will feel drawn to come together. Benches and bench groupings seating up to six persons will invite conversation. Provocative words will be incorporated into the bench design to encourage dialogue: story, gather, empathy, inspire, care, hope, peace, still, share, love, dream, and, of course, listen This landscaped space wraps around the outside of the intimate Garden Chapel, a religious setting featuring a multifaith Tree of Life art installation. A key feature of the Garden is the Peace Pole, proclaiming in eight languages from around the globe, “May Peace Prevail on Earth.” The Garden of Listening will serve as an outward-looking companion space to the Chapel’s adjacent Garden of Reflection and Remembrance, with its primary focus on the inward contemplative journey.

Through encouraging dialogue across differences, the Garden of Listening supports the University’s institutional mission of inspiring the “critical thinking and intellectual growth of its students... and the effective engagement of its students with the surrounding world.” Student organizations, faculty members, chaplains, and staff will be encouraged to utilize this unique space for programming, events, meetings, faith-based sessions, and classes. The Garden also will be available for drop-by, unscheduled gatherings. These occasions, formal and informal, offer students the opportunity to develop their listening skills and ability to communicate with each other as well as enjoy being outside in nature. In time, specifically-designed Chapel programming will focus on ways to learn about and practice deep listening.

Spending time in natural places, while long thought to be important to human well-being, takes special prominence at this point in time. The isolation and pain associated with the pandemic has left many students in need of ways to reacquaint themselves with the pleasures of everyday living. Simply being out-of-doors in nature, in conversation with others, may serve as one critical step along the path of re-finding equanimity and happiness in the post-COVID 19 world.

The paper presentation for CIES will discuss the development of the Garden of Listening and track its use and impact in its first months on campus. The author is interested in eliciting recommendations from audience members on ways to fully utilize the Garden of Listening in the future. How can a natural setting create openings for us to slow down, be still, and listen to one another intently and without judgment? In time, it is hoped, the Garden of Listening will be such a place.

Author

• Denise McHugh, University of Maryland